1. Imaging Water Dissociation on TiO2(110): Evidence for Inequivalent Geminate OH Groups
Zdenek Dohnálek, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Science Area/Topic:
JOURNAL COVER:
Z Zhang, O Bondarchuk, BD Kay,
JM White, and Z Dohnálek
“Imaging Water Dissociation on
TiO2(110): Evidence for Inequivalent
Geminate OH Groups.” Journal of
Physical Chemistry B 110,
The TiO2-H2O system is of great interest for many areas of both fundamental and applied science, including photocatalysis, electrochemistry, active coatings, and corrosion.
Understanding of water adsorption, diffusion, and dissociation on prototypical rutile TiO2(110) has become one of the leading topics in the area of oxide surface chemistry.
Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) used to image and characterize time evolution of pairs of OH groups formed upon H2O dissociation on oxygen vacancy sites.
In contrast with generally accepted view these results show that two hydroxyl groups formed upon water dissociation are not equal.
These studies provide fundamental understanding of reaction intermediates and kinetic processes that are germane to photocatalytic water splitting on TiO2