文摘
We present the role of photogenerated charge carriers in the oxidation of CO by O<sub>2sub> on reduced, rutile TiO<sub>2sub>(110) based on first-principles DFT calculations. Our calculations show that hole-trapped O<sub>2sub> at the O vacancy site adopts a tilted open ring configuration, while an additional electron preferentially localizes at the CO-bound Ti site. The electron鈥揾ole separated configuration likely converts to the O鈥揙鈥揅鈥揙 complex with a small barrier of around 0.1 eV. From the neutral intermediate state, CO<sub>2sub> is predicted to desorb off the surface with a barrier less than 0.2 eV if another hole is available. For comparison, we also look at both thermally activated and hole-mediated CO oxidation processes, but the predicted overall barriers of around 0.9 and 0.5 eV, respectively, appear to be high for facile CO oxidation at low temperatures. Our findings clearly highlight that excess electrons and holes can synergetically contribute to CO photooxidation, which is consistent with a recent experimental study by Petrik and Kimmel that provides evidence for involvement of multiple nonthermal reaction steps.
Keywords:
CO photooxidation; rutile TiO<sub>2sub>(110); synergetic role of electrons and holes; nonthermal catalytic reaction; density functional theory calculation