Water-Hydroxyl Wetting Monolayer Predicted and Realized on a Hydrophobic Metal Surface
Meiling Xu, Qiaoxiao Zhao, Zijia Liu, Xuegao Hu, Jisong Gao, Pengyue Gao, Yiming Zhang, Yinwei Li, Dong Li, Zhicheng Gao, Kehui Wu, Lan Chen, Changfeng Chen, Yanchao Wang, Yanming Ma, Baojie Feng
Abstract
Water adsorption on metal surfaces is ubiquitous in broad natural and technological settings. However, elucidating this phenomenon is often challenging due to difficulties in accurately determining the morphology and understanding the chemistry of adsorbed water networks. Here, we report a significant discovery of the water-hydroxyl (H 2 O–OH) wetting monolayer, which has long been deemed possible only on hydrophilic metal surfaces, now realized on an archetypal hydrophobic metal surface, Ag(111). Ab initio structure searches predicted a hexagonal hydrogen-bonded network comprising alternating H 2 O and OH units; ensuing low-energy-electron-assisted synthesis in concert with extensive characterization and computational simulation provided compelling evidence of an H 2 O–OH monolayer realized on the Ag(111) surface, with remarkable stability up to near room temperature. Our finding brings new insights into the intriguing chemistry of H 2 O–OH overlayers on metal surfaces, and the electron-assisted synthesis opens a unique pathway toward creating delicate molecular networks.