Water Dissociation and Hydroxyl Ordering on Anatase TiO_{2}(001)-(1×4).

We studied the interaction of water with the anatase TiO_{2}(001) surface by means of scanning tunneling microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations. Water adsorbs dissociatively on the ridges of a (1×4) reconstructed surface, resulting in a (3×4) periodic structure of hydroxyl pairs. We observed this process at 120 K, and the created hydroxyls desorb from the surface by recombination to water, which occurs below 300 K. Our calculations reveal the water dissociation mechanism and uncover a very pronounced dependence on the coverage. This strong coverage dependence is explained through water-induced reconstruction on anatase TiO_{2}(001)-(1×4). The high intrinsic reactivity of the anatase TiO_{2}(001) surface towards water observed here is fundamentally different from that seen on other surfaces of titania and may explain its high catalytic activity in heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis.

NH3 adsorption on anatase-TiO2(101).

The adsorption of ammonia on anatase TiO2 is of fundamental importance for several catalytic applications of TiO2 and for probing acid-base interactions. Utilizing high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), synchrotron X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), and density functional theory (DFT), we identify the adsorption mode and quantify the adsorption strength on the anatase TiO2(101) surface. It was found that ammonia adsorbs non-dissociatively as NH3 on regular five-fold coordinated titanium surface sites (5f-Ti) with an estimated exothermic adsorption energy of 1.2 eV for an isolated ammonia molecule. For higher adsorbate coverages, the adsorption energy progressively shifts to smaller values, due to repulsive intermolecular interactions. The repulsive adsorbate-adsorbate interactions are quantified using DFT and autocorrelation analysis of STM images, which both showed a repulsive energy of ∼50 meV for nearest neighbor sites and a lowering in binding energy for an ammonia molecule in a full monolayer of 0.28 eV, which is in agreement with TPD spectra.

Facile embedding of single vanadium atoms at the anatase TiO2(101) surface.

To understand the structure-reactivity relationships for mixed-metal oxide catalysts, well-defined systems are required. Mixtures of vanadia and titania (TiO2) are of particular interest for application in heterogeneous catalysis, with TiO2 often acting as the support. By utilizing high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy, we studied the interaction of vanadium (V) with the anatase TiO2(101) surface in the sub-monolayer regime. At 80 K, metallic V nucleates into homogeneously distributed clusters onto the terraces with no preference for nucleation at the step edges. However, embedding of single V atoms into TiO2 occurs following annealing at room temperature. In conjunction with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data and density functional theory calculations, we propose that monomeric V atoms occupy positions of regular surface Ti sites, i.e., Ti atoms are substituted by V atoms.