Studies of the Surface Deuterioxyl Group and Adsorbed D2O on γ-Al2O3 Using Picosecond Infrared Pump−Probe Spectroscopy

Abstract

Picosecond infrared-infrared pump−probe experiments in the OD stretching region were carried out on dehydrated and multilayer water-adsorbed γ-Al2O3. For the dehydrated γ-Al2O3, transient bands assigned to the bleaching and hot bands of the OD stretching mode of isolated surface hydroxyl groups were observed, and the population lifetime (T1) of the vibrational excited state (v = 1) of the mode was 200 ± 10 ps at 293 K. The characteristic temperature dependence of T1 is indicative of a seven-phonon process. For the water-adsorbed γ-Al2O3, the transient bleaching and transient hot bands with a lifetime of 10−12 ps were observed by excitation of the absorption peak at 2630 cm-1. In addition to these bands, weak transient bands were observed in the low-frequency region. These results are considered evidence of the existence of isolated water molecules on the γ-Al2O3 surface. Pure dephasing is also discussed based on the bandwidth of the observed transient bands.