Microdroplet-Controlled Divergent Reactivity at a Gas-Organic Interface

Abstract

Gas-liquid Interface plays key roles in many fantastic phenomena due to specific properties. Although remarkable reactivities were benefited from gas-water interface of aqueous microdroplets, it remains unknown for gas-organic interface. This work discovers such extraordinary reactivity of gas-organic interface using organic microdroplets (acetonitrile and other organic solvents). This reactivity at the gas-organic interface facilitated a novel micrordroplet-controlled divergence, i.e., double C–N cleavage in high efficiency (yields > 90% in milliseconds) compared to single C–N bond breakdown and intramolecular cycloarrangement in bulk under harsher conditions from the same imidazolines. This study is not only important to wide applicability and inherent mechanisms of the gas-organic interface but also enables good insights into gas-water and other interface-rich studies in atmospheric and photochemistry, on-water chemistry, biological and biomedical, industrial, and energy.