Collisions of noble gases with supercooled sulfuric acid–water solutions

The collisions of hyperthermal noble gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe) with supercooled binary sulfuric acid–water mixtures (57–77 wt%) were explored in the temperature range between 210 and 240 K. The experiments were performed by directing a molecular beam of the respective gases onto a continuously renewed liquid surface and monitoring the velocity of the scattered molecules by mass spectrometry. Depending on the initial translational energies and molecular masses, we observe both inelastic scattering from the surface as well as thermalization followed by subsequent desorption. The experiments indicate that the repulsive momentum transfer in the inelastic scattering channel increases with increasing mass of the impinging gas, while it is only weakly affected by the initial velocities. The final energy of the thermally desorbing atoms can always be approximated by a Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution equal to the liquid bulk phase temperature. The influence of the binary composition of the liquid phase is only noticeable in the case of Ne, whilst this dependence diminishes for gases with molecular masses ≥40 amu. The probability of thermalisation relative to inelastic scattering increases with the bulk phase temperature, independent of the molecular masses of the colliding gas. In contrast, the fractional energy transfer during collision does not increase with temperature, except for Neon. These results can be interpreted in the model framework of hard-sphere collisions of noble gases with the surface, during which water and sulfuric acid molecules interact independently with the impinging gas.