Site-Specific Photocatalytic Splitting of Methanol on TiO2(110)

Authors

Chuanyao Zhou, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
Zefeng Ren, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
Shijing Tan, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
Zhibo Ma, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
Xinchun Mao, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
Dongxu Dai, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
Hongjun Fan, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
Xueming Yang, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics
Jerry L. LaRue, Chapman UniversityFollow
Russell Cooper, University of California, Santa Barbara
Alec M. Wodtke, University of California, Santa Barbara
Zhou Wang, University of Science and Technology of China
Zhenyu Li, University of Science and Technology of China
Bing Wang, University of Science and Technology of China
Jinlong Yang, University of Science and Technology of China
Jianguo Hou, University of Science and Technology of China

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-6-2010

Abstract

Clean hydrogen production is highly desirable for future energy needs, making the understanding of molecular-level phenomena underlying photocatalytic hydrogen production both fundamentally and practically important. Water splitting on pure TiO₂ is inefficient, however, adding sacrificial methanol could significantly enhance the photocatalyzed H₂ production. Therefore, understanding the photochemistry of methanol on TiO₂ at the molecular level could provide important insights to its photocatalytic activity. Here, we report the first clear evidence of photocatalyzed splitting of methanol on TiO₂ derived from time-dependent two-photon photoemission (TD-2PPE) results in combination with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). STM tip induced molecular manipulation before and after UV light irradiation clearly reveals photocatalytic bond cleavage, which occurs only at Ti⁴⁺ surface sites. TD-2PPE reveals that the kinetics of methanol photodissociation is clearly not of single exponential, an important characteristic of this intrinsically heterogeneous photoreaction.

Comments

This article was originally published in Chemical Science, volume 1, in 2010. DOI: 10.1039/C0SC00316F

Recommended Citation

C. Zhou, Z. Ren, S. Tan, Z. Ma, X. Mao, D. Dai, H. Fan, X. Yang, J. LaRue, R. Cooper, A. M. Wodtke, Z. Wang, Z. Li, B. Wang, J. Yang, J. Hou, Site-specific photocatalytic splitting of methanol on TiO2(110), Chemical Science 2010, 1, 575-580, DOI: 10.1039/C0SC00316F

Copyright

Royal Society of Chemistry