Adsorption of water on a hydrophobic surface – The case of antimony(1 1 1)

The adsorption of water was studied on Sb(1 1 1) single crystals with Auger electron spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, low energy electron diffraction, thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS), and molecular beam scattering. In addition, the coadsorption of water and n-butane was considered. Unexpectedly, water TDS consists of only one feature obeying 0th order kinetics. Butane adsorption transients (beam scattering) show site blocking effects only for very large preexposures of water. Therefore, a distinct hydrophobic character of the antimony surface is concluded.