Wet electrons, which occur on the surface of metal oxides, are a transition state for electrons between the solid and liquid states of matter. Wet electrons are attracted to positively-charged hydroxide ions which form on oxide surfaces in the presence of atmospheric moisture. These electrons in turn affect the interaction of other materials with the oxide.
Hydrogen atoms on water or hydroxide (OH) can be involved in hydrogen bonds or be dangling. Wet electrons are primarily stabilized by the dangling atoms on OH, which is more acidic than water, but the dangling atoms on water also contribute to the stabilization. The process is akin to following the lowest elevation path between valleys with a mountain between them. The minimum energy necessary to change an electron from the solid to the liquid state corresponds to going through the wet electron state. Wet electrons are a transition state (saddle point) between electrons in the liquid and solid states.
Famous quotes containing the words wet and/or electrons:
“What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)
“Such is the art of writing as Dreiser understands it and practices it—an endless piling up of minutiae, an almost ferocious tracking down of ions, electrons and molecules, an unshakable determination to tell it all. One is amazed by the mole-like diligence of the man, and no less by his exasperating disregard for the ease of his readers.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)