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Water Interface: Insights from recent study

2019-11-21

Venue: Lecture Hall, Anzhong Building, Zijingang Campus

About the speaker:


Enge Wang is the Professor of Physics, Peking University. He is also the Chairman of Advisor Board of Institute of Physics and the Honorary Director of Kavli Institute of Theoretical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was the Director of the Institute of Physics, the President of Peking University, and the Vice President of Chinese Academy of Sciences from 1999 to 2017.  He was selected as the Vice President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) in 2017, the International Councilor of American Physical Society (APS) in 2018, and the Chairman of Global Cooperation Alliance of Science Centers (GCASC) in 2019. He researches condensed matter physics; the approach is a combination of theoretical and experimental study of light-element materials, such as anomalous behaviors of water under confinement.

Abstract: 

Despite water being a ubiquitous substance, it is surprising that some basic questions are still debated. Here using a combination of experimental (cryogenic STM/AFM) and theoretical (first-principle electronic structures and molecular dynamics) methods, we systematically studied the unusual structure and dynamics of water interface at atomic scale, and the sub-molecular imagining, clustering, proton transfer and hydration number of water on salt. An imaging mechanism based on a subtle control over the tip-molecule coupling is proposed, which allows a sub-molecular level resolution for water moleculae. Full quantum effect sheds light on our understanding of water nature on surface.