The role of substrate electrons in the wetting of a metal surface.
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.
Schiros
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Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
Takahashi
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Andersson
K J
KJ
Oström
H
H
Pettersson
L G M
LG
Nilsson
A
A
Ogasawara
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