The notion that large electric fields at the air-water interface catalyze spontaneous chemical reactions has sparked significant debate, with far reaching implications for atmospheric chemistry and interfacial reactivity. Using vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy, we test this hypothesis by directly comparing local electric field strengths at the air-water interface and in bulk water. By applying established vibrational frequency-to-field mappings to the OH stretch of interfacial and bulk water, we extract effective electric field distributions under ambient conditions. Contrary to prevailing claims, our results reveal no spectroscopic evidence for exceptionally strong or long-lived interfacial electric fields. Instead, bulk water consistently exhibits broader distributions and statistically larger field magnitudes. The absence of key spectral signatures, such as redshifted continua, or slowed spectral diffusion, further undermines the idea of anomalous surface fields. Our findings call into question the growing narrative that electrostatic forces at pristine and charge neutral water surfaces can drive chemical reactions and instead highlight the importance of rigorous spectroscopic benchmarks when evaluating interfacial phenomena.
@article{arxiv.2508.15422,
title = {Reevaluating Anomalous Electric Fields at the Air-Water Interface: A Surface-Specific Spectroscopic Survey},
author = {Joseph C. Shirley and Zi Xuan Ng and Kuo-Yang Chiang and Yuki Nagata and Yair Litman and Arsh S. Hazrah and Mischa Bonn},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.15422},
year = {2025}
}