The structure of mixed H2O-OH monolayer films on Ru(0001)

Electrocatalysis in Alkaline Media and Alkaline Membrane-Based Energy Technologies

Hydrogen energy-based electrochemical energy conversion technologies offer the promise of enabling a transition of the global energy landscape from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Here, we present a comprehensive review of the fundamentals of electrocatalysis in alkaline media and applications in alkaline-based energy technologies, particularly alkaline fuel cells and water electrolyzers. Anion exchange (alkaline) membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) enable the use of nonprecious electrocatalysts for the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), relative to proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), which require Pt-based electrocatalysts. However, the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) kinetics is significantly slower in alkaline media than in acidic media. Understanding these phenomena requires applying theoretical and experimental methods to unravel molecular-level thermodynamics and kinetics of hydrogen and oxygen electrocatalysis and, particularly, the proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) process that takes place in a proton-deficient alkaline media. Extensive electrochemical and spectroscopic studies, on single-crystal Pt and metal oxides, have contributed to the development of activity descriptors, as well as the identification of the nature of active sites, and the rate-determining steps of the HOR and ORR. Among these, the structure and reactivity of interfacial water serve as key potential and pH-dependent kinetic factors that are helping elucidate the origins of the HOR and ORR activity differences in acids and bases. Additionally, deliberately modulating and controlling catalyst-support interactions have provided valuable insights for enhancing catalyst accessibility and durability during operation. The design and synthesis of highly conductive and durable alkaline membranes/ionomers have enabled AEMFCs to reach initial performance metrics equal to or higher than those of PEMFCs. We emphasize the importance of using membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) to integrate the often separately pursued/optimized electrocatalyst/support and membranes/ionomer components. Operando/in situ methods, at multiscales, and ab initio simulations provide a mechanistic understanding of electron, ion, and mass transport at catalyst/ionomer/membrane interfaces and the necessary guidance to achieve fuel cell operation in air over thousands of hours. We hope that this Review will serve as a roadmap for advancing the scientific understanding of the fundamental factors governing electrochemical energy conversion in alkaline media with the ultimate goal of achieving ultralow Pt or precious-metal-free high-performance and durable alkaline fuel cells and related technologies.

Water-Ice Analogues of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons: Water Nanoclusters on Cu(111)

Water has an incredible ability to form a rich variety of structures, with 16 bulk ice phases identified, for example, as well as numerous distinct structures for water at interfaces or under confinement. Many of these structures are built from hexagonal motifs of water molecules, and indeed, for water on metal surfaces, individual hexamers of just six water molecules have been observed. Here, we report the results of low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy experiments and density functional theory calculations which reveal a host of new structures for water–ice nanoclusters when adsorbed on an atomically flat Cu surface. The H-bonding networks within the nanoclusters resemble the resonance structures of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and water–ice analogues of inene, naphthalene, phenalene, anthracene, phenanthrene, and triphenylene have been observed. The specific structures identified and the H-bonding patterns within them reveal new insight about water on metals that allows us to refine the so-called “2D ice rules”, which have so far proved useful in understanding water–ice structures at solid surfaces.

Coexistence of ice clusters and liquid-like water clusters on the Ru(0001) surface

Detailed RAIRS spectra reveal rich and varied local hydrogen bonding structures inside the two types of water clusters found on the Ru(0001) surface.

How Does Water Wet a Surface?

The adsorption and reactions of water on surfaces has attracted great interest, as water is involved in many physical and chemical processes at interfaces. On metal surfaces, the adsorption energy of water is comparable to the hydrogen bond strength in water. Therefore, the delicate balance between the water-water and the water-metal interaction strength determines the stability of water structures. In such systems, kinetic effects play an important role and many metastable states can form with long lifetimes, such that the most stable state may not reached. This has led to difficulties in the theoretical prediction of water structures as well as to some controversial results. The direct imaging using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) in ultrahigh vacuum at low temperatures offers a reliable means of understanding the local structure and reaction of water molecules, in particular when interpreted in conjunction with density functional theory calculations. In this Account, a selection of recent STM results on the water adsorption and dissociation on close-packed metal surfaces is reviewed, with a particular focus on Ru(0001). The Ru(0001) surface is one where water adsorbs intact in a metastable state at low temperatures and where partially dissociated layers are formed at temperatures above ∼150 K. First, we will describe the structure of intact water clusters starting with the monomer up to the monolayer. We show that icelike wetting layers do not occur on close-packed metal surfaces but instead hydrogen bonded layers in the form of a mixture of pentagonal, hexagonal, and heptagonal molecular rings are observed. Second, we will discuss the dissociation mechanism of water on Ru(0001). We demonstrate that water adsorption changes from dissociative to molecular as a function of the oxygen preadsorbed on Ru. Finally, we briefly review recent STM experiments on bulk ice (Ih and Ic) and water adsorption on insulating thin films. We conclude with an outlook illustrating the manipulation capabilities of STM in respect to probe the proton and hydrogen dynamics in water clusters.

Water on titanium dioxide surface: a revisiting by reactive molecular dynamics simulations

The behavior of surface water, especially the adsorption and dissociation characteristics, is a key to understanding and promoting photocatalytic and biomedical applications of titanium dioxide materials. Using molecular dynamics simulations with the ReaxFF force field, we study the interactions between water and five different TiO2 surfaces that are of interest to both experiments and theoretical calculations. The results show that TiO2 surfaces demonstrate different reactivities for water dissociation [rutile (011) > TiO2-B (100) > anatase (001) > rutile (110)], and there is no water dissociation observed on the TiO2-B (001) surface. The simulations also reveal that the water dissociation and the TiO2 surface chemistry change, and the new surface Ti-OH and O-H functional groups affect the orientation of other near-surface water molecules. On the reactive surface, such as the rutile (110) surface, water dissociated and formed new Ti-OH and O-H bonds on the surface. Those functional groups enhanced the hydrogen bond networking with the near-surface water molecules and their configurations. On the nonreactive TiO2-B (001) surface where no molecular or dissociative water adsorption is observed, near-surface water can also form hydrogen bonds with surface oxygen atoms of TiO2, but their distance to the surface is longer than that on the rutile (011) surface.

Unveiling the mechanism of water partial dissociation on Ru(0001)

We have studied the mechanism of the partial dissociation of water on Ru(0001) by high resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The thermal evolution of water at submonolayer coverage has been tracked in the 110-145 K temperature range to identify the precursor structures for the partial dissociation. These were found to consist of hexagons arranged in thin stripes aligned along the close packed Ru [21¯1¯0] directions. The partially dissociated phase, on the other hand, contains a mixture of H2O and OH hexagons arranged into wider stripes and rotated by 30° with respect to the intact water stripes. The atomic structure of both types of stripes is determined with the aid of density functional theory and STM simulations, providing insights into the partial dissociation reaction path. The reaction is found to be exothermic by around 0.4 eV and initiating at the edges of the intact water stripes. Hydrogen atoms, from water dissociation or already present at the surface, are found to play an important role in the kinetics of the reactions.

A unified study for water adsorption on metals: meaningful models from structural motifs

We present a comprehensive structural model that allows the rapid assessment of the first layer of water adsorption on metals for different motifs.

A molecular perspective of water at metal interfaces

Water/solid interfaces are relevant to a broad range of physicochemical phenomena and technological processes such as corrosion, lubrication, heterogeneous catalysis and electrochemistry. Although many fields have contributed to rapid progress in the fundamental knowledge of water at interfaces, detailed molecular-level understanding of water/solid interfaces comes mainly from studies on flat metal substrates. These studies have recently shown that a remarkably rich variety of structures form at the interface between water and even seemingly simple flat surfaces. In this Review we discuss the most exciting work in this area, in particular the emerging physical insight and general concepts about how water binds to metal surfaces. We also provide a perspective on outstanding problems, challenges and open questions.

Strain relief and disorder in commensurate water layers formed on Pd(111)

Water adsorbs and desorbs intact on Pd(111), forming a hydrogen-bonded wetting layer whose structure we examine by low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and He atom scattering (HAS). LEED shows that water forms commensurate (√3 × √3)R30° clusters that aggregate into a partially ordered, approximately (7 × 7) superstructure as the layer completes. HAS indicates that the water layer remains disordered on a local (approximately 10 Å) scale. Based on workfunction measurements and density functional theory simulations we propose that water forms small, flat domains of a commensurate (√3 × √3)R30° water network, separated by disordered domain boundaries containing largely H-down water. This arrangement allows the water layer to adapt its density and relieve the lateral strain associated with adsorbing water in the optimum flat atop adsorption site. We discuss different possibilities for the structure of these domain walls and compare this strain relief mechanism to the highly ordered, large unit cell structures formed on surfaces such as Pt(111).

Metal- and hydrogen-bonding competition during water adsorption on Pd(111) and Ru(0001)

The initial stages of water adsorption on the Pd(111) and Ru(0001) surfaces have been investigated experimentally by scanning tunneling microscopy in the temperature range between 40 and 130 K, and theoretically with density functional theory (DFT) total energy calculations and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) image simulations. Below 125 K, water dissociation does not occur at any appreciable rate, and only molecular films are formed. Film growth starts by the formation of flat hexamer clusters where the molecules bind to the metal substrate through the O-lone pair while making H-bonds with neighboring molecules. As coverage increases, larger networks of linked hexagons are formed with a honeycomb structure, which requires a fraction of the water molecules to have their molecular plane perpendicular to the metal surface with reduced water-metal interaction. Energy minimization favors the growth of networks with limited width. As additional water molecules adsorb on the surface, they attach to the periphery of existing islands, where they interact only weakly with the metal substrate. These molecules hop along the periphery of the clusters at intermediate temperatures. At higher temperatures, they bind to the metal to continue the honeycomb growth. The water-Ru interaction is significantly stronger than the water-Pd interaction, which is consistent with the greater degree of hydrogen-bonded network formation and reduced water-metal bonding observed on Pd relative to Ru.