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Updated: Jun 10, 2026

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy
Published on: May 27, 2018
Structures of water molecules at solvent/silica interfaces
Zheng Yang1, Qifeng Li, Murray R Gray
1Department of Chemistry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada.
Abstract:
The adsorption of water at solvent/silica interfaces was studied using IR-visible sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy. We discovered a water layer between toluene and silica with no detectable free OHs. The water layer without free OHs showed resistance against further adsorption of water molecules. This "water-resistant" water surface was very stable at room temperature and did not become a regular water layer with free OH over a period of 12 h in water-saturated toluene. However, this special structure of water was not observed at heptane/silica interfaces, at which free OHs were observed. The study indicates that interactions between solvents and water molecules can significantly change the interfacial water properties.
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