Premium
Molecular‐Scale Imaging of Water Near Charged Surfaces
Author(s) -
Mehlhorn Michael,
Schnur Sebastian,
Groß Axel,
Morgenstern Karina
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
chemelectrochem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.182
H-Index - 59
ISSN - 2196-0216
DOI - 10.1002/celc.201300063
Subject(s) - scanning tunneling microscope , adsorption , chemical physics , molecule , density functional theory , nanometre , materials science , scale (ratio) , layer (electronics) , nanotechnology , chemistry , physics , computational chemistry , composite material , quantum mechanics , organic chemistry
The orientation of water molecules on water bilayers is investigated on Cu(111) by a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory. Theory predicts that the application of a field reorients the adsorbed water molecules at a distance of close to a nanometer from the surface. Experimental evidence is presented for this prediction. Furthermore, the process differs strongly between adsorption on two and on three ordered layers. We propose that these results give insight into the behavior of the diffusive layer close to electrodes.