English

CO2 dissociation activated through electron attachment on reduced rutile TiO2(110)-1x1 surface

Chemical Physics 2015-05-28 v1

Abstract

Converting CO2_2 to useful compounds through the solar photocatalytic reduction has been one of the most promising strategies for artificial carbon recycling. The highly relevant photocatalytic substrate for CO2_2 conversion has been the popular TiO2_2 surfaces. However, the lack of accurate fundamental parameters that determine the CO2_2 reduction on TiO2_2 has limited our ability to control these complicated photocatalysis processes. We have systematically studied the reduction of CO2 at specific sites of the rutile TiO2_2(110)-1x1 surface using scanning tunneling microscopy at 80 K. The dissociation of CO2 molecules is found to be activated by one electron attachment process and its energy threshold, corresponding to the CO2˙_2^{\dot-}/CO2_2 redox potential, is unambiguously determined to be 2.3 eV higher than the onset of the TiO2_2 conduction band. The dissociation rate as a function of electron injection energy is also provided. Such information can be used as practical guidelines for the design of effective catalysts for CO2_2 photoreduction.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1106.2625,
  title  = {CO2 dissociation activated through electron attachment on reduced rutile TiO2(110)-1x1 surface},
  author = {Shijing Tan and Yan Zhao and Jin Zhao and Zhuo Wang and Chuanxu Ma and Aidi Zhao and Bing Wang and Yi Luo and Jinlong Yang and Jianguo Hou},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1106.2625},
  year   = {2015}
}