Single-molecule observations of surfactant diffusion at the solution-solid interface

Individual fatty acid molecules adsorbed at the interface between hexadecane and fused silica have been tracked using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy. Two cooperative diffusive mechanisms are observed: continuous small-scale Brownian motion and occasional large jumps. The continuous diffusion exhibits evidence of confinement. The effective interfacial diffusion coefficients for each mechanism increase systematically with temperature; an Arrhenius analysis gives an activation barrier of similar to 50 kJ/mol for jumping and an upper limit of similar to 10 kJ/mol for confined diffusion.