Water adsorption on two-dimensional silica films

In the meanwhile several inorganic low-dimensional crystals (analog to the prototypical organic graphene) are known. A technological important example is two-dimensional (2D) silica films (silicatene); their molecular structure is well described in the literature. However, much less is known about the surface chemistry. We present experimental data to characterize water adsorption on silicatene using several known synthesis procedures. The wettability of the 2D films did in our study depend on details of the film preparation. Therefore, the hydrophobicity could be used as a simple diagnostics tool to verify the quality of silicatene films. In addition, wettability of the precursors to silicatene namely Mo(112), and O-Mo(112) were characterized. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.