Issue 32, 2023

Three-dimensional ordering of water molecules reflecting hydroxyl groups on sapphire (001) and α-quartz (100) surfaces

Abstract

Water molecules on oxide surfaces influence the chemical reactivity and molecular adsorption behavior of oxides. Herein, three-dimensional atomic force microscopy (3D-AFM) and molecular dynamics simulations are used to visualize the surface hydroxyl (OH) groups and their hydration structures on sapphire (001) and α-quartz (100) surfaces at the atomic-scale. The obtained results revealed that the spatial density distributions and hydrogen-bonding strengths of surface OH groups affect their local hydration structures. In particular, the force curves obtained by 3D-AFM suggest that the hydration forces of water molecules intensify at sites where water molecules strongly interact with the surface OH groups. The insights obtained in this study deepen our understanding of the affinities of Al2O3 and SiO2 for water molecules and contribute to the use of 3D-AFM in the investigation of atomic-scale hydration structures on various surfaces, thereby benefiting a wide range of research fields dealing with solid–liquid interfaces.

Graphical abstract: Three-dimensional ordering of water molecules reflecting hydroxyl groups on sapphire (001) and α-quartz (100) surfaces

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
29 may 2023
Accepted
16 iyl 2023
First published
19 iyl 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale, 2023,15, 13262-13271

Three-dimensional ordering of water molecules reflecting hydroxyl groups on sapphire (001) and α-quartz (100) surfaces

S. Nagai, S. Urata, K. Suga, T. Fukuma, Y. Hayashi and K. Miyazawa, Nanoscale, 2023, 15, 13262 DOI: 10.1039/D3NR02498A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements