Chemical nature and thermal decomposition behavior of tartaric acid multilayers on rutile TiO2(110)

Abstract

R,R-tartaric acid (RR-TA) thermal stability and decomposition on the rutile TiO2(110) surface was investigated by temperature programmed desorption. The authors show that a majority of RR-TA molecules are desorbed intact from multilayers at around 340 K, while they decompose from the first chemisorbed layer between 460 and 480 K. Complementary information on the chemical nature of RR-TA in the multilayer regime was gained by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, which shows that biacid molecules form the multilayer while they are monotartrate at the interface.