Water chemisorption and reconstruction of the MgO surface

The observed reactivity of MgO with water is in apparent conflict with theoretical calculations which show that molecular dissociation does not occur on a perfect (001) surface. We have performed ab initio total-energy calculations which show that a chemisorption reaction involving a reconstruction to form a (111) hydroxyl surface is strongly preferred with \ensuremath{\Delta}E=-90.2 kJ ${\mathrm{mol}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$. We conclude that protonation stabilizes the otherwise unstable (111) surface and that this, not the bare (001), is the most stable surface of MgO under ambient conditions.