Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Interfacial Water with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy
Published on: May 27, 2018
Water clusters on Cu(110): chain versus cyclic structures
T Kumagai1, H Okuyama, S Hatta
1Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
Abstract:
Water clusters are assembled and imaged on Cu(110) by using a scanning tunneling microscope. Water molecules are arranged along the Cu row to form "ferroelectric" zigzag chains of trimer to hexamer. The trimer prefers the chain form to a cyclic one in spite of the reduced number of hydrogen bonds, highlighting the crucial role of the water-substrate interaction in the clustering of adsorbed water molecules. On the other hand, the cyclic form with maximal hydrogen bonds becomes more favorable for the tetramer, indicating the crossover from chain to cyclic configurations as the constituent number increases.
Related Concept Videos
Conformations of Cyclohexane
The chair form is the most stable and derives its name from its resemblance to the “easy chair.” In the chair conformation, two carbon atoms are arranged out-of-plane — one above and one below, minimizing the torsional strain. In the chair form, the bond angle is very close to the ideal tetrahedral value,...
Metallic Solids
All metallic solids exhibit high thermal and electrical conductivity, metallic luster, and malleability. Many...
Chair Conformation of Cyclohexane
The hydrogen atoms linked to carbons are arranged in two different axial and equatorial orientations to achieve this staggered...
Ionic Crystal Structures
Most monatomic ions behave as charged spheres, and their attraction for ions of opposite charge is the same in every direction. Consequently, stable structures for ionic compounds result (1) when ions of one charge are surrounded by as many ions as possible of the opposite...
Lattice Centering and Coordination Number
Types of Unit Cells
Imagine taking a large number of identical...
Aromatic Hydrocarbon Cations: Structural Overview
Removing one hydrogen from the intervening CH2 group with both...

