Water adsorption and dissociation on BeO (001) and (100) surfaces

Plateaus in water adsorption isotherms on hydroxylated BeO surfaces suggest significant differences between the hydroxylated (100) and (001) surface structures and reactivities. Density functional theory structures and energies clarify these differences. Using relaxed surface energies, a Wulff construction yields a prism crystal shape exposing long (100) sides and much smaller (001) faces. This is consistent with the BeO prisms observed when beryllium metal is oxidized. A water oxygen atom binds to a single surface beryllium ion in the preferred adsorption geometry on either surface. The water oxygen/beryllium bonding is stronger on the surface with greater beryllium atom exposure, namely the less-stable (001) surface. Water/beryllium coordination facilitates water dissociation. On the (001) surface, the dissociation products are a hydroxide bridging two beryllium ions and a metal coordinated hydride with some surface charge depletion. On the (100) surface, water dissociates into a hydroxide ligating a Be atom and a proton coordinated to a surface oxygen but the lowest energy water state on the (100) surface is the undissociated metal-coordinated water. The (100) fully hydroxylated surface structure has a hydrogen bonding network which facilitates rapid proton shuffling within the network. The corresponding (001) hydroxylated surface is fairly open and lacks internal hydrogen bonding. This supports previous experimental interpretations of the step in water adsorption isotherms. Further, when the (100) surface is heated to 1000 K, hydroxides and protons associate and water desorbs. The more open (001) Preprint submitted to Elsevier 2 February 2008 hydroxylated surface is stable at 1000 K. This is consistent with the experimental disappearance of the isotherm step when heating to 973 K.