Femtosecond Hydrogen Bond Dynamics of Bulk-like and Bound Water at Positively and Negatively Charged Lipid Interfaces Revealed by 2D HD-VSFG Spectroscopy

Interfacial water in the vicinity of lipids plays an important role in many biological processes, such as drug delivery, ion transportation, and lipid fusion. Hence, molecular-level elucidation of the properties of water at lipid interfaces is of the utmost importance. We report the two-dimensional heterodyne-detected vibrational sum frequency generation (2D HD-VSFG) study of the OH stretch of HOD at charged lipid interfaces, which shows that the hydrogen bond dynamics of interfacial water differ drastically, depending on the lipids. The data indicate that the spectral diffusion of the OH stretch at a positively charged lipid interface is dominated by the ultrafast (<∼100 fs) component, followed by the minor sub-picosecond slow dynamics, while the dynamics at a negatively charged lipid interface exhibit sub-picosecond dynamics almost exclusively, implying that fast hydrogen bond fluctuation is prohibited. These results reveal that the ultrafast hydrogen bond dynamics at the positively charged lipid–water interface are attributable to the bulk-like property of interfacial water, whereas the slow dynamics at the negatively charged lipid interface are due to bound water, which is hydrogen-bonded to the hydrophilic head group.