title: The role of substrate electrons in the wetting of a metal surface.
abstract: We address how the electronic and geometric structures of metal surfaces determine water-metal bonding by affecting the balance between Pauli repulsion and electrostatic attraction. We show how the rigid d-electrons and the softer s-electrons utilize different mechanisms for the redistribution of charge that enables surface wetting. On open d-shell Pt(111), the ligand field of water alters the distribution of metal d-electrons to reduce the repulsion. The closed-shell Cu d(10) configuration of isostructural Cu(111), however, does not afford this mechanism, resulting in a hydrophobic surface and three-dimensional ice cluster formation. On the geometrically corrugated Cu(110) surface, however, charge depletion involving the mobile sp-electrons at atomic rows reduces the exchange repulsion sufficiently such that formation of a two-dimensional wetting layer is still favored in spite of the d(10) electronic configuration.
authors.affiliation: Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schiros
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oström
authors.forename: L G M
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Pettersson
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ogasawara