Recent advances on "ordered water monolayer that does not completely wet water" at room temperature

Abstract

The molecular scales behavior of interfacial water at the solid/liquid interfaces is of a fundamental significance in a diverse set of technical and scientific contexts, ranging from the efficiency of oil mining to the activity of biological molecules. Recently, it has become recognized that, both the physical interactions and the surface morphology have significant impact on the behavior of interfacial water, including the water structures as well as the wetting properties of the surface. In this review, we summarize some of recent advances in the atom-level pictures of the interfacial water, which exhibits the ordered character on various solid surfaces at room or cryogenic temperature. Special focus has been devoted to the wetting phenomenon of "ordered water monolayer that does not completely wet water" and the underlying mechanism on model and some real solid surfaces at room temperature. The possible applications of this phenomenon are also discussed. © 2014 Science China Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.