Substrate and surfactant effects on the glass-liquid transition of thin water films

Temperature-programmed time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TP-TOF-SIMS) and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) have been used to perform a detailed investigation of the adsorption, desorption, and glass-liquid transition of water on the graphite and Ni(111) surfaces in the temperature range 13-200 K. Water wets the graphite surface at 100-120 K, and the hydrogen-bonded network is formed preferentially in the first monolayer to reduce the number of nonbonding hydrogens. The strongly chemisorbed water molecules at the Ni(111) surface do not form such a network and play a role in stabilizing the film morphology up to 160 K, where dewetting occurs abruptly irrespective of the film thickness. The surface structure of the water film formed on graphite is fluctuated considerably, resulting in deweting at 150-160 K depending on the film thickness. The dewetted patches of graphite are molecularly clean, whereas the chemisorbed water remains on the Ni(111) surface even after evaporation of the film. The abrupt drop in the desorption rate of water molecules at 160 K, which has been attributed to crystallization in the previous TPD studies, is found to disappear completely when a monolayer of methanol is present on the surface. This is because the morphology of supercooled liquid water is changed by the surface tension, and it is quenched by termination of the free OH groups on the surface. The surfactant methanol desorbs above 160 K since the hydrogen bonds of the water molecules are reconstructed. The drastic change in the properties of supercooled liquid water at 160 K should be ascribed to the liquid-liquid phase transition.