title: Evidence of Stranski-Krastanov growth at the initial stage of atmospheric water condensation.
abstract: The precipitation products (rain, snow and so on) of atmospheric water vapour are widely prevalent, and yet the map of its initial stage at a surface is still unclear. Here we investigate the condensation of water vapour occurring in both the hydrophobic-hydrophilic interface (graphene/mica) and the hydrophilic-hydrophilic interface (MoS2/mica) by in situ thermally controlled atomic force microscopy. By monitoring the dynamic dewetting/rewetting transitions process, the ice-like water adlayers, at the hydrophobic-hydrophilic interface and not at the hydrophilic-hydrophilic interface, stacked on top of each other up to three ice-Ih layers (each of height 3.7 ± 0.2 Å), and the transition from layers to droplets was directly visualized experimentally. Compared with molecular dynamics simulation, the Stranski-Krastanov growth model is better suited to describe the whole water condensation process at the hydrophobic-hydrophilic interface. The initial stage of the hydrometeor is rationalized, which potentially can be utilized for understanding the boundary condition for water transport and the aqueous interfacial chemistry.
authors.affiliation: 1] Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Aarhus C DK-8000, Denmark [2] School of Physical Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China [3].
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: 1] Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Aarhus C DK-8000, Denmark [2].
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Xiaofeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors.forename: Jingyuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Aarhus C DK-8000, Denmark.
authors.forename: Shuai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: 1] Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Aarhus C DK-8000, Denmark [2] Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Aarhus C DK-8000, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jørgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kjems
authors.affiliation: 1] Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Aarhus C DK-8000, Denmark [2] Department of Physics and Astronomy (IFA), Aarhus University, Aarhus C DK-8000, Denmark.
authors.forename: Flemming
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Besenbacher
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Aarhus C DK-8000, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mingdong
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dong