Two Dimensional Ice Adsorbed on Mica Surface

Abstract

First principles molecular dynamics simulations have been performed on water adsorption at the surface of muscovite mica. At monolayer coverage we found water to condense into a fully connected two dimensional hydrogen bond network, which we denote as 2D ice. The structure is stable up to 300 K and it is proposed as a candidate for the solidlike structure recently detected in scanning polarization force microscopy on the hydrated muscovite surface at room temperature [Hu et al., Science 268, 267 (1995)].