TY - JOUR
T1 - Water adsorption on TiO2 surfaces probed by soft X-ray spectroscopies
T2 - Bulk materials vs. isolated nanoparticles
AU - Benkoula, Safia
AU - Sublemontier, Olivier
AU - Patanen, Minna
AU - Nicolas, Christophe
AU - Sirotti, Fausto
AU - Naitabdi, Ahmed
AU - Gaie-Levrel, François
AU - Antonsson, Egill
AU - Aureau, Damien
AU - Ouf, François Xavier
AU - Wada, Shin Ichi
AU - Etcheberry, Arnaud
AU - Ueda, Kiyoshi
AU - Miron, Catalin
N1 - Funding Information:
The experiments have been performed at the PLEIADES beamline at the SOLEIL Synchrotron, France (Proposal No. 20130466). We thank Dr L. Chiodo for discussion and theoretical assistance, E. Robert for technical assistance, and the SOLEIL staff for stable operation of the equipment and storage ring during the experiments. The aerosol generation and focusing instrumentation used for this work has been funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) under Grand No. ANR-07-NANO-0031 (Nano-PLEIADES). The authors acknowledge the European COST action CM1204 - XUV/X-ray light and fast ions for ultrafast chemistry (XLIC).
PY - 2015/10/14
Y1 - 2015/10/14
N2 - We describe an experimental method to probe the adsorption of water at the surface of isolated, substrate-free TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) based on soft X-ray spectroscopy in the gas phase using synchrotron radiation. To understand the interfacial properties between water and TiO2 surface, a water shell was adsorbed at the surface of TiO2 NPs. We used two different ways to control the hydration level of the NPs: in the first scheme, initially solvated NPs were dried and in the second one, dry NPs generated thanks to a commercial aerosol generator were exposed to water vapor. XPS was used to identify the signature of the water layer shell on the surface of the free TiO2 NPs and made it possible to follow the evolution of their hydration state. The results obtained allow the establishment of a qualitative determination of isolated NPs surface states, as well as to unravel water adsorption mechanisms. This method appears to be a unique approach to investigate the interface between an isolated nano-object and a solvent over-layer, paving the way towards new investigation methods in heterogeneous catalysis on nanomaterials.
AB - We describe an experimental method to probe the adsorption of water at the surface of isolated, substrate-free TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) based on soft X-ray spectroscopy in the gas phase using synchrotron radiation. To understand the interfacial properties between water and TiO2 surface, a water shell was adsorbed at the surface of TiO2 NPs. We used two different ways to control the hydration level of the NPs: in the first scheme, initially solvated NPs were dried and in the second one, dry NPs generated thanks to a commercial aerosol generator were exposed to water vapor. XPS was used to identify the signature of the water layer shell on the surface of the free TiO2 NPs and made it possible to follow the evolution of their hydration state. The results obtained allow the establishment of a qualitative determination of isolated NPs surface states, as well as to unravel water adsorption mechanisms. This method appears to be a unique approach to investigate the interface between an isolated nano-object and a solvent over-layer, paving the way towards new investigation methods in heterogeneous catalysis on nanomaterials.
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U2 - 10.1038/srep15088
DO - 10.1038/srep15088
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84944413635
VL - 5
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
SN - 2045-2322
M1 - 15088
ER -