Identification of a common ice nucleus on hydrophilic and hydrophobic close-packed metal surfaces

Establishing a general model of heterogeneous ice nucleation has long been challenging because of the surface water structures found on different substrates. Identifying common water clusters, regardless of the underlying substrate, is one of the key steps toward solving this problem. Here, we demon...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature communications 2023-09, Vol.14 (1), p.5813-5813, Article 5813
Main Authors: Chen, Pengcheng, Xu, Qiuhao, Ding, Zijing, Chen, Qing, Xu, Jiyu, Cheng, Zhihai, Qiu, Xiaohui, Yuan, Bingkai, Meng, Sheng, Yao, Nan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
142/136
147/135
147/3
639/301/357
639/638/440
639/925/357
Atomic force microscopy
Clusters
Copper
Humanities and Social Sciences
Hydrophilicity
Hydrophobicity
Ice
Ice nucleation
Metal surfaces
Microscopy
Molecular structure
multidisciplinary
Nucleation
Scanning tunneling microscopy
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Substrates
Surface water
Water chemistry
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Establishing a general model of heterogeneous ice nucleation has long been challenging because of the surface water structures found on different substrates. Identifying common water clusters, regardless of the underlying substrate, is one of the key steps toward solving this problem. Here, we demonstrate the presence of a common water cluster found on both hydrophilic Pt(111) and hydrophobic Cu(111) surfaces using scanning tunneling microscopy and non-contact atomic force microscopy. Water molecules self-assemble into a structure with a central flat-lying hexagon and three fused pentagonal rings, forming a cluster consisting of 15 individual water molecules. This cluster serves as a critical nucleus during ice nucleation on both surfaces: ice growth beyond this cluster bifurcates to form two-dimensional (three-dimensional) layers on hydrophilic (hydrophobic) surfaces. Our results reveal the inherent similarity and distinction at the initial stage of ice growth on hydrophilic and hydrophobic close-packed metal surfaces; thus, these observations provide initial evidence toward a general model for water-substrate interaction. One key challenge in water science is to create a universal model that can predict the arrangement of water/solid interfaces. Here, the authors use STM and noncontact-AFM to discover common water clusters during the initial growth on hydrophilic and hydrophobic close-packed metal surfaces.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-023-41436-x