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Updated: Jun 19, 2026
Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy
Published on: May 27, 2018
Mechanical probing of icelike water monolayers
Dewei Xu1, Kenneth M Liechti, K Ravi-Chandar
1Research Center for the Mechanics of Solids, Structures and Materials, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA.
Abstract:
Direct measurements of the normal force interactions between a mica-tungsten contact pair at various humidity levels reveal the presence of repulsive forces at about 0.5 nm before intimate contact. Such repulsive interactions begin to appear above 20% RH and are fully developed in the range of 38-45% RH. Using the DMT model of contact, a reduced elastic modulus of approximately 6.7 GPa is extracted from these repulsive interactions and attributed to the presence of icelike water on mica at room temperature. The collapse of such structures was also inferred from the measurements.
