@article{TongWirthKirschetal.2015,
  author    = {Tong, Yujin and Wirth, Jonas and Kirsch, Harald and Wolf, Martin and Saalfrank, Peter and Campen, Richard Kramer},
  title     = {Optically probing Al-O and O-H vibrations to characterize water adsorption and surface reconstruction on alpha-alumina: An experimental and theoretical study},
  series = {The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr},
  volume    = {142},
  journal   = {The journal of chemical physics : bridges a gap between journals of physics and journals of chemistr},
  number    = {5},
  publisher = {American Institute of Physics},
  address   = {Melville},
  issn      = {0021-9606},
  doi       = {10.1063/1.4906346},
  pages     = {12},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Oxide/water interfaces are ubiquitous in a wide variety of applications and the environment. Despite this ubiquity, and attendant decades of study, gaining molecular level insight into water/oxide interaction has proven challenging. In part, this challenge springs from a lack of tools to concurrently characterize changes in surface structure (i.e., water/oxide interaction from the perspective of the solid) and O-H population and local environment (i.e., water/oxide interaction from the water perspective). Here, we demonstrate the application of surface specific vibrational spectroscopy to the characterization of the interaction of the paradigmatic alpha-Al2O3(0001) surface and water. By probing both the interfacial Al-O (surface phonon) and O-H spectral response, we characterize this interaction from both perspectives. Through electronic structure calculation, we assign the interfacial Al-O response and rationalize its changes on surface dehydroxylation and reconstruction. Because our technique is all-optical and interface specific, it is equally applicable to oxide surfaces in vacuum, ambient atmospheres and at the solid/liquid interface. Application of this approach to additional alumina surfaces and other oxides thus seems likely to significantly expand our understanding of how water meets oxide surfaces and thus the wide variety of phenomena this interaction controls. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{KirschWirthTongetal.2014,
  author    = {Kirsch, Harald and Wirth, Jonas and Tong, Yujin and Wolf, Martin and Saalfrank, Peter and Campen, Richard Kramer},
  title     = {Experimental characterization of unimolecular water dissociative adsorption on alpha-alumina},
  series = {The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces},
  volume    = {118},
  journal   = {The journal of physical chemistry : C, Nanomaterials and interfaces},
  number    = {25},
  publisher = {American Chemical Society},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {1932-7447},
  doi       = {10.1021/jp502106t},
  pages     = {13623 -- 13630},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {alpha-Al2O3 surfaces are common in both engineered applications and the environment. Much prior work indicates that their properties, e.g., reactivity, polarity, and charge, change dramatically on interaction with water. Perhaps the simplest question that can be asked of alpha-Al2O3/water interaction is how a single water molecule interacts with the most stable alpha-Al2O3 surface: the alpha-Al2O3(0001). Over the last 15 years, a series of theoretical studies have found that water dissociatively adsorbs on alpha-Al2O3(0001) through two channels. However, to our knowledge no experimental evidence of these dissociation pathways has appeared. By combining sample preparation via supersonic molecular beam dosing, sample characterization via coherent, surface specific vibrational spectroscopy and electronic structure theory, we report the first experimental observation of reaction products of each, theoretically predicted, dissociation channel. These results thus overcome a 15 year old experiment/theory disconnect and make possible a variety of intriguing experiments that promise to provide significant new insights into water/Al2O3 and water/oxide interaction more generally.},
  language  = {en}
}