Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy

Summary

Here, we present a protocol to investigate the structure and dynamics of interfacial water at the atomic scale, in terms of submolecular resolution imaging, molecular manipulation, and single-bond vibrational spectroscopy.

Abstract

Water/solid interfaces are ubiquitous and play a key role in many environmental, biophysical, and technological processes. Resolving the internal structure and probing the hydrogen-bond (H-bond) dynamics of the water molecules adsorbed on solid surfaces are fundamental issues of water science, which remains a great challenge owing to the light mass and small size of hydrogen. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is a promising tool for attacking these problems, thanks to its capabilities of sub-Ångström spatial resolution, single-bond vibrational sensitivity, and atomic/molecular manipulation. The designed experimental system consists of a Cl-terminated tip and a sample fabricated by dosing water molecules in situ onto the Au(111)-supported NaCl(001) surfaces. The insulating NaCl films electronically decouple the water from the metal substrates, so the intrinsic frontier orbitals of water molecules are preserved. The Cl-tip facilitates the manipulation of the single water molecules, as well as gating the orbitals of water to the proximity of Fermi level (E_F) via tip-water coupling. This paper outlines the detailed methods of submolecular resolution imaging, molecular/atomic manipulation, and single-bond vibrational spectroscopy of interfacial water. These studies open up a new route for investigating the H-bonded systems at the atomic scale.

Introduction

The interactions of water with the surfaces of solid materials are involved in various surface reaction processes, such as heterogeneous catalysis, photoconversion, electrochemistry, corrosion and lubrication et al.^1,2,3 In general, to investigate interfacial water, spectroscopic and diffraction techniques are commonly used, such as infrared and Raman spectroscopy, sum-frequency generation (SFG), X-ray diffraction (XRD), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), neutron scattering^4,5,6

Protocol

NOTE: The experiments are performed on water molecules adsorbed on the Au-supported NaCl(001) film (Figure 1a) at 5 K with an ultrahigh-vacuum (UHV) cryogenic STM equipped with Nanonis electronic controller.

1. Fabrication of Experimental Sample

1. Clean the Au(111) single crystal
   1. Pump the gas line to the pressure of ~10^-7 mbar and then flush the gas line with Ar gas. Put through the pump/flush cycle for three times.
      NOTE: Each pump/flush cycle takes about 30 min.
   2. Fill the gas line with Ar gas to the pressure of 2 bar, thus pro....

Results

Figure 1a illustrates the schematic of the STM experimental setup. First, Au(111) substrate is cleaned by sputtering and annealing cycles in the UHV chamber. The clean Au(111) sample shows 22×√3 reconstructed surface, where the atoms of the surface layer occupy both the hcp and the fcc sites forming herringbone structures (Inset of Figure 1b). The NaCl is evaporated on the Au(111) substrate, form.......

Discussion

To probe the internal structure, dynamics, and vibrational spectroscopy of water molecules adsorbed on the solid surfaces, paying particular attention to the degrees of freedom of hydrogen, some experimental steps are of crucial importance, which will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

The orbital imaging of water molecules is achieved based on two key steps. First, the insulating NaCl films decouple the water electronically from the Au substrate, second the orbital gating effect of the.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Au(111) single crystal	MaTeck	NA
NaCl	Sigma Aldrich	450006
Water, deuterium-depleted	Sigma Aldrich	195294
Deuterium oxide	Sigma Aldrich	364312
Sealed-off glass-UHV adapters	MDC vacuum products	46300
Diaphragm-sealed valve	any	NA
Bellows-sealed valve	any	NA
Leak valve	Kurt J. Lesker	NA
Scanning tunneling microscopy	CreaTec	NA
Electronic controller.	Nanonis	NA
Tungsten wire	any		diameter:0.3 mm; purity: 99.95%