We probe the adsorption of molecular H2O on a TiO2 (110)-(1 × 1) surface decorated with isolated VO clusters using ultrahigh-vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy (UHV-STM) and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD). Our STM images show that preadsorbed VO clusters on the TiO2 (110)-(1 × 1) surface induce the adsorption of H2O molecules at room temperature (RT). The adsorbed H2O molecules form strings of beads of H2O dimers bound to the 5-fold coordinated Ti atom (5c-Ti) rows and are anchored by VO. This RT adsorption is completely reversible and is unique to the VO-decorated TiO2 surface. TPD spectra reveal two new desorption states for VO stabilized H2O at 395 and 445 K, which is in sharp contrast to the desorption of water due to recombination of hydroxyl groups at 490 K from clean TiO2(110)-(1 × 1) surfaces. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that the binding energy of molecular H2O to the VO clusters on the TiO2 (110)-(1 × 1) surface is higher than binding to the bare surface by 0.42 eV, and the resulting H2O-VO-TiO2 (110) complex provides the anchor point for adsorption of the string of beads of H2O dimers.
© 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.