Activity and Adsorption Behavior of Oxygen on Rutile TiO_(2)(110)

The activity and adsorption behavior of oxygen on rutile TiO_(2)(110)(RTiO_(2)(110))were investigated using the temperature programmed desorption(TPD)method with methanol(CH_(3)OH)as the probe molecule.By controlling the coverage of molecular O_(2)on the surface via increasing or decreasing O_(2)exposure,two chemisorbed O_(2)species on the surface are confirmed,one at the bridging oxygen vacancy(Ov)site(O_(2)^(2-)/Ov)and the other at the five-fold coordinated titanium(Ti_(5c))site(O^(2-)/Ti_(5c)).At low O_(2)exposure,O^(2-)/Ov is the main species on the surface,which only leads to the O-H bond cleavage of CH_(3)OH,producing methoxy groups(CHgO).However,after the Ov sites are nearly filled by O_(2)at about 0.1 L O_(2)exposure,O_(2)/Tisc species begins to appear on R-TiO_(2)(110)surface,resulting in the formation of formaldehyde(CH_(2)O)via the reaction of O_(2)/Tisc species with CH_(3)OH or CH3O to break the C-H bond at low surface temperature.Moreover,the yield of CH_(2)O increases linearly with that of H_(2)O.In addition,when the 1 L O_(2)covered surface is irradiated with 355 nm UV irradiation to desorb and dissociate O_(2)/Ti_(5c)species,the yield of CH_(2)O decreases linearly with that of H_(2)O.Further analysis suggests that the charge state of O_(2)/Ti_(5c)may not change as the exposure of O_(2)changes on the R-TiO_(2)(110)surface,and O_(2)is most likely to adsorb on the Ti_(5c)sites in the form of O_(2)^(2-),not O_(2)^(-),The result not only advances our understanding on the adsorption state of O_(2)on TiO_(2),but also provides clues for low temperature C-H bond activation with O_(2)on TiO_(2).