The use of grazing incidence X-ray scattering techniques to probe chemical reactions at the liquid–liquid interface: the formation and ordering of gold nanoparticles

Abstract

In this short feature article we shall highlight the merits of grazing incidence X-ray scattering (GIXS) techniques to investigate enigmatic chemical reactions at liquid–liquid interfaces. We shall illustrate the techniques by using the results of a recent GIXS study that helped to understand the formation and ordering of gold nanoparticles in an interfacial reaction at the water-toluene interface. The applicability of the presented techniques is far-reaching as transfer of charge/ion across a liquid–liquid interface is important in various fields like biochemistry, biophysics and catalysis. Moreover these techniques may become useful to improve our understanding of chemical processes at any asymmetric environments.