Water Adsorption at the Tetrahedral Titania Surface Layer of SrTiO${}_3$(110)-(4$\times$1)

Abstract

The interaction of water with oxide surfaces is of great interest for both fundamental science and applications. We present a combined theoretical [density functional theory (DFT)] and experimental [Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM), photoemission spectroscopy (PES)] study of water interaction with the two-dimensional titania overlayer that terminates the SrTiO${}_3$(110)-(4$\times$1) surface and consists of TiO${}_4$ tetrahedra. STM, core-level and valence band PES show that H${}_2$O neither adsorbs nor dissociates on the stoichiometric surface at room temperature, while it dissociates at oxygen vacancies. This is in agreement with DFT calculations, which show that the energy barriers for water dissociation on the stoichiometric and reduced surfaces are 1.7 and 0.9 eV, respectively. We propose that water weakly adsorbs on two-dimensional, tetrahedrally coordinated overlayers.

References in corpus (2)

• Observation and destruction of an elusive adsorbate with STM: O${}_2$/TiO${}_2$
• Strain-induced Defect Superstructure on the SrTiO3(110) Surface

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Anisotropic two-dimensional electron gas at SrTiO3(110) protected by its native overlayer
• Transition from reconstruction towards thin film on the (110) surface of strontium titanate
• High chemical activity of a perovskite surface: reaction of CO with Sr${}_3$Ru${}_2$O${}_7$
• Vacancy clusters at domain boundaries and band bending at the SrTiO${}_3$(110) surface
• Stabilizing Single Ni adatoms on a Two-dimensional Porous Titania Overlayer at the SrTiO${}_3$(110) Surface
• Point defects at cleaved Sr${}_{n+1}$Ru${}_n$O${}_{3n+1}$(001) surfaces
• Enhanced tunability of two-dimensional electron gas on SrTiO3 through heterostructuring