ACS Nano: the latest research results of Niu TianChao and Li Shuang of Nanjing University of technology on the structure and dynamic behavior of water molecules in blue phosphorus nanopores

Recently, Niu TianChao, Professor of Nanjing University of science and technology and Li Shuang, associate professor of nanoisomer materials center, jointly published a research paper entitled "imaging and dynamics of water hexamer converged in nanopools" on the international famous journal ACS Nano (if = 13.7) in the field of nano technology (DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.9b04835), master's Sinan and doctor's Shen Tao are the co first authors Water is one of the most widely distributed substances on the earth People's research on water involves the decomposition of water to produce hydrogen, water pollution control, and the form of water in life Understanding the structure of water and its interaction with other substances at molecular scale is still the focus and difficulty of water science research At the same time, the realization of molecular scale observation and the maintenance of the intrinsic properties of water are very harsh for the selection of the model system of STM with atomic resolution Blue phosphorus, an allotrope of black phosphorus, is a two-dimensional material with regular hexagon structure However, after epitaxial growth on the surface of Au (111), regular honeycomb structure with long-range order is formed, which can localize molecules and atoms in nanopores At the same time, the lower density of state of blue phosphorus is conducive to the longer excited state life, so that the study of adsorption kinetics can be realized At the same time, the weak interface interaction also maintains the intrinsic properties of the adsorbate Therefore, it is of great significance to study the structure and dynamic behavior of water molecules in blue phosphorus nanopores A single layer of blue phosphorus was prepared on Au (111) substrate by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) The density functional theory (DFT) system was used to reveal the controversial atomic structure model of blue phosphorus Then, the formation of hexamer in the blue phosphorus nanopore was confirmed by high-resolution STM / spectroscopy combined with the first principle calculation The researchers observed the vibration of water molecules excited by inelastic electrons Due to the dipole formed by the local interface charge rearrangement between the water hexamer and the phosphorus atom, the researchers realized the reversible adsorption and desorption of water molecules by changing the sample bias This result not only provides an ideal substrate for further study of water behavior, but also provides a new way to explore the surface functionalization of two-dimensional materials This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Jiangsu Natural Science Foundation and the special funds for basic scientific research business expenses of central universities.