Hematite(001)-liquid water interface from hybrid density functional-based molecular dynamics

Abstract

The atom-scale characterisation of interfaces between transition metal oxides and liquid water is fundamental to our mechanistic understanding of diverse phenomena ranging from crystal growth to biogeochemical transformations to solar fuel production. Here we report on the results of large-scale hybrid density functional theory-based molecular dynamics simulations for the hematite(001)-liquid water interface. A specific focus is placed on understanding how different terminations of the same surface influence surface solvation. We find that the two dominant terminations for the hematite(001) surface exhibit strong differences both in terms of the active species formed on the surface and the strength of surface solvation. According to present simulations, we find that charged oxyanions (-O-) and doubly protonated oxygens (-OH) can be formed on the iron terminated layer via autoionization of neutral -OH groups. No such charged species are found for the oxygen terminated surface. In addition, the missing iron sublayer in the iron terminated surface strongly influences the solvation structure, which becomes less well ordered in the vicinity of the interface. These pronounced differences are likely to affect the reactivity of the two surface terminations, and in particular the energetics of excess charge carriers at the surface.