Proton transfer in a two-dimensional hydrogen-bonding network: water and hydroxyl on a pt(111) surface

The time scale of proton transfer between H(2)O and OH adsorbed on a Pt(111) surface was determined by a combination of laser-induced thermal desorption (LITD) and microscale x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (micro-XPS). The patterned distribution OH+H(2)O/H(2)O/OH + H(2)O was initially prepared on the Pt(111) surface by the LITD method and the time evolution of the spatial distribution of H(2)O and OH was observed by the micro-XPS technique. From quantitative analyses based on a diffusion equation, we found two proton-transfer pathways with different time scales of 5.2+/-0.9 ns and 48+/-12 ns at 140 K, which were attributed to direct proton transfer to the neighbor site and H(3)O(+)-mediated transfer to the next-nearest site, respectively.