One-dimensional water structures at low water coverage on Cu(110)

Abstract

The self-organization of water in metallic surfaces is detemined by the competition between inter-molecular and metal-substrate interactions. An additional complication is given by the possibility that significant fraction of water molecules undergo partial dissociation. The wetting of Cu(ll0) has been recently reported. At low temperature and coverage, water forms one-dimensional arrays that clear indicate the competition of different interactions mentioned above. Carrasco et al. identified this structure with a wire formed by side-sharing pentagonal rings fomed by intact molecules. We present here a combined experimental and theoretical study that challenges this interpretation. Our STM images show structures different that those reported by Carrasco et al. We have compared our experimental STM images with a series of theoretical calculations of different linear structures based on pentagonal and hexagonal motifs. In this presentation we discuss different structures that produce simulated STM images in good correspondence with experiment. The most stable ones are based on hexagonal motifs with some dissociated molecules.