Water adsorption on metal surfaces is ubiquitous in broad natural and technological settings. However, elucidating this phenomenon is often challenging due to difficulties in accurately determining the morphology and understanding the chemistry of adsorbed water networks. Here, we report a significant discovery of the water-hydroxyl (H₂O–OH) wetting monolayer, which has long been deemed possible only on hydrophilic metal surfaces, now realized on an archetypal hydrophobic metal surface, Ag(111). Ab initio structure searches predicted a hexagonal hydrogen-bonded network comprising alternating H₂O and OH units; ensuing low-energy-electron-assisted synthesis in concert with extensive characterization and computational simulation provided compelling evidence of an H₂O–OH monolayer realized on the Ag(111) surface, with remarkable stability up to near room temperature. Our finding brings new insights into the intriguing chemistry of H₂O–OH overlayers on metal surfaces, and the electron-assisted synthesis opens a unique pathway toward creating delicate molecular networks.

中文翻译：

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在疏水性金属表面上预测和实现水羟基润湿单分子层

金属表面的水分吸附在广泛的自然和技术环境中无处不在。然而，由于难以准确确定吸附水网络的形态和理解其化学性质，阐明这种现象通常具有挑战性。在这里，我们报道了水羟基 （H₂O-OH） 润湿单分子层的重要发现，长期以来一直认为这只能在亲水性金属表面上实现，现在在原型疏水性金属表面 Ag（111） 上实现。从头计算结构搜索预测了一个由交替的 H₂O 和 OH 单元组成的六方氢键网络;随后的低能电子辅助合成与广泛的表征和计算模拟相结合，为在 Ag（111） 表面上实现的 H₂O-OH 单分子层提供了令人信服的证据，在接近室温下具有显着的稳定性。我们的发现为金属表面 H₂O-OH 覆盖层的有趣化学性质带来了新的见解，电子辅助合成为创建精细的分子网络开辟了一条独特的途径。