AVS 52nd International Symposium
    Surface Science Thursday Sessions
       Session SS1-ThM

Paper SS1-ThM4
The Growth of Thin Water Films on a Hydrophobic Water Monolayer on Pt(111)

Thursday, November 3, 2005, 9:20 am, Room 200

Session: Water-Surface Interactions
Presenter: G.A. Kimmel, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Authors: G.A. Kimmel, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
N.G. Petrik, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Z. Dohnalek, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
B.D. Kay, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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The growth of amorphous solid water and crystalline ice films on Pt(111) is investigated using rare gas physisorption. For a wide range of growth temperatures (20 - 155 K), the water monolayer wets the Pt(111). However, crystalline ice films grown on the water monolayer do not wet that surface. In contrast, amorphous films grow layer-by-layer for at least the first three layers over a wide range of growth temperatures (20-120 K), probably due to kinetic limitations. Wetting films grown at low temperature that are subsequently annealed to high temperature typically unwet during or after the crystallization of the films. The results are surprising since it is commonly believed that water films wet Pt(111). However, they are consistent with recent theory and experiments suggesting that the molecules in the water monolayer are fully coordinated forming a hydrophobic surface with no dangling OH bonds or lone pair electrons and a low surface energy.