Vibrational features of confined water in nanoporous TiO2 by Raman spectra**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11304049 and 11264006), the Guizhou Provincial Science and Technology Foundation, China (Grant No. J[2010]2132), and the Doctor Funds of Guizhou University, China (Grant No. [2012] 020).

Abstract

Raman spectra of confined water adsorbed in nanoporous TiO2 are obtained in experiment. TiO2 samples with different pore diameters under different humidity conditions are investigated. The results indicate that the symmetric vibrational mode of water molecule is destroyed when relative humidity decreases. This indicates that the interaction between water molecules and surface of TiO2 becomes stronger when the distance between water molecules and surface turns smaller, and the interaction plays a major role in depressing the symmetric vibrational peak. The spectra of confined water in TiO2 and Vycor are compared. When filling fractions are the same, their spectra show distinctions no matter whether they are in partial filling condition or in full filling condition. The spectra of HDO confined in TiO2 with different filling fractions are compared with each other. There is no clear distinction among their vibrational peaks, and the peaks mainly relate to asymmetric vibration. Therefore, the interaction between water molecules and the wall of pore decouples the symmetric vibrational mode only, and the influences on asymmetric vibrational mode show little differences among different filling fractions.