2011/11/14 by Shijing Tan, Tan, Shijing, Yongfei Ji +16
Chemistry · Energy · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Adsorption #Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques #Catalysis #Catalytic Processes in Materials Science #Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph) #Chemical physics #Chemistry #Dissociation (chemistry) #Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides #FOS: Physical sciences #Hydrogen #Irradiation #Materials science #Molecule #Nanotechnology #Photocatalysis #Photochemistry #Physical chemistry #Physics #Rutile #Scanning tunneling microscope #Self-ionization of water #Water splitting #physics.chem-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1111.3256
published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University) · 4 pages main text (including 4 figures, 31 references), 4 pages for supporting materials
arxiv created 2011/11/14 · openalex publication_date 2011/11/14 · arxiv updated 2011/11/15 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Photocatalytic water splitting reaction on TiO2 surface is one of the fundamental issues that bears significant implication in hydrogen energy technology and has been extensively studied. However, the existence of the very first reaction step, the direct photo-dissociation of water, has been disregarded. Here, we provide unambiguously experimental evidence to demonstrate that adsorbed water molecules on reduced rutile TiO2(110)-1×1 surface can be dissociated under UV irradiation using low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. It is identified that a water molecule at fivefold coordinated Ti (Ti5c) site can be photocatalytically dissociated, resulting in a hydroxyl at Ti5c and another hydroxyl at bridge oxygen row. Our findings reveal a missing link in the photocatalytic water splitting reaction chain, which greatly contribute to the detailed understanding of underlying mechanism.