Interaction between water molecules and zinc sulfide nanoparticles studied by temperature-programmed desorption and molecular dynamics simulations

We have investigated the bonding of water molecules to the surfaces of ZnS nanoparticles (similar to 2-3 nm sphalerite) using temperature-programmed desorption (TPD). The activation energy for water desorption was derived as a function of the surface coverage through kinetic modeling of the experimental TPD curves. The binding energy of water equals the activation energy of desorption if it is assumed that the activation energy for adsorption is nearly zero. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of water adsorption on 3 and 5 nm sphalerite nanoparticles provided insights into the adsorption process and water binding at the atomic level. Water binds with the ZnS nanoparticle surface mainly via formation of Zn-O bonds. As compared with bulk ZnS crystals, ZnS nanoparticles can adsorb more water molecules per unit surface area due to the greatly increased curvature, which increases the distance between adjacent adsorbed molecules. Results from both TPD and MD show that the water binding energy increases with decreasing the water surface coverage. We attribute the increase in binding energy with decreasing surface water coverage to the increasing degree of surface under-coordination as removal of water molecules proceeds. MD also suggests that the water binding energy increases with decreasing particle size due to the further distance and hence lower interaction between adsorbed water molecules on highly curved smaller particle surfaces. Results also show that the binding energy, and thus the strength of interaction of water, is highest in isolated nanoparticles, lower in nanoparticle aggregates, and lowest in bulk crystals. Given that water binding is driven by surface energy reduction, we attribute the decreased binding energy for aggregated as compared to isolated particles to the decrease in surface energy that occurs as the result of inter-particle interactions.