Evidence for bicarbonate formation on vacuum annealed TiO 2(110) resulting from a precursor-mediated interaction between CO 2 and H 2O

Abstract

The reaction of CO 2 and H 2O to form bicarbonate (HCO − 3) was examined on the nearly perfect and vacuum annealed surfaces of TiO 2(110) with temperature programmed desorption (TPD), static secondary ion mass spectrometry (SSIMS) and high resolution electron energy loss spectrometry (HREELS). The vacuum annealed TiO 2(110) surface possesses oxygen vacancy sites that are manifested in electronic EELS by a loss feature at 0.75 V. These oxygen vacancy sites bind CO 2 only slightly more strongly (TPD peak at 166 K) than do the five-coordinated Ti 4+ sites (TPD peak at 137 K) typical of the nearly perfect TiO 2(110) surface. Vibrational HREELS indicates that CO 2 is linearly bound at the latter sites with a ν a(OCO) frequency similar to the gas phase value. In contrast, oxygen vacancies dissociate H 2O to bridging OH groups which recombine to liberate H 2O in TPD at 490 K. No evidence for a reaction between CO 2 and H 2O is detected on the nearly perfect surface. In sequentially dosed experiments on the vacuum annealed surface at 110 K, CO 2 adsorption is blocked by the presence of preadsorbed H 2O, adsorbed CO 2 is displaced by postdosed H 2O, and there is little or no evidence for bicarbonate formation in either case. However, when CO 2 and H 2O are simultaneously dosed, a new CO 2 TPD state is observed at 213 K, and the 166 K state associated with CO 2 at the vacancies is absent. SSIMS was used to tentatively assign the 213 K CO 2 TPD state to a bicarbonate species. The 213 K CO 2 TPD state is not formed if the vacancy sites are filled with OH groups prior to simultaneous CO 2+H 2O exposure. Sticking coefficient measurements suggest that CO 2 adsorption at 110 K is precursor-mediated, as is known to be the case for H 2O adsorption on TiO 2(110). A model explaining the circumstances under which the proposed bicarbonate species is formed involves the surface catalyzed conversion of a precursor-bound H 2O–CO 2 van der Waals complex to carbonic acid, which then reacts at unoccupied oxygen vacancies to generate bicarbonate, but falls apart to CO 2 and H 2O in the absence of these sites. This model is consistent with the conditions under which bicarbonate is formed on powdered TiO 2, and is similar to the mechanism by which water catalyzes carbonic acid formation in aqueous solution.