Synchrotron x-ray reflectivity is used to study the interface between bulk water and bulk n-alkanes with carbon numbers 6 through 10, 12, 16, and 22. For all interfaces, except the water-hexane interface, the interfacial width disagrees with the prediction from capillary-wave theory. The variation of interfacial width with carbon number can be described by combining the capillary-wave prediction for the width with a contribution from intrinsic structure. This intrinsic structure is determined by the gyration radius for the shorter alkanes and by the bulk correlation length for the longer alkanes.
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Mitrinović et al. (2000) studied this question.