Article pubs.acs.org/JPCC
Special Chemical Properties of RuOx Nanowires in RuOx/TiO2(110): Dissociation of Water and Hydrogen Production Shankhamala Kundu,† Alba B. Vidal,†,‡ Fan Yang,† Pedro J. Ramírez,§ Sanjaya D. Senanayake,† Dario Stacchiola,† Jaime Evans,§ Ping Liu,† and José A. Rodriguez*,† †
Chemistry Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, United States Centro de Química, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas (IVIC), Apartado 21827, Caracas 1020-A, Venezuela § Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Apartado 20513, Caracas 1020-A, Venezuela ‡
ABSTRACT: Recently, there has been a strong interest in understanding the role of mixed-metal oxides in catalysts used for the production of hydrogen through the splitting of water. Here, we investigate the structural and chemical properties of RuOx/ TiO2(110) surfaces employing scanning tunneling microscopy, photoemission, and density functional calculations. Ruthenium oxide forms unique wirelike structures on top of TiO2(110) which are very reactive toward water dissociation, being able to cleave O−H bonds at a temperature as low as 200 K. The calculated barrier for the dissociation of water on RuO2 nanowires is
