Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Vibrational Energy Relaxation at the Solid/Liquid Interface

The water/fluorite interface is of relevance to diverse industrial, environmental, and medical applications. In this contribution we review some of our recent results on the dynamics of water in contact with the solid calcium fluoride at low pH, where localised charge can develop upon fluorite dissolution. We use ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, including the full electronic structure, to simulate the vibrational energy relaxation and to quantify the heterogeneity of the interfacial water molecules. We find that strongly hydrogen-bonded OH groups display very rapid spectral diffusion and vibrational relaxation; for weakly H-bonded OD groups, the dynamics is instead much slower. Detailed analysis of the simulations reveals the molecular origin of energy transport through the local hydrogen-bond network. In particular, we find that the water molecules in the adsorbed layer, whose orientation is pinned by the localised charge defects, can exchange vibrational energy using just half a solvation shell, thanks to the strong dipole-dipole alignment between H-bond donor and acceptor.