Adsorption Configurations and Reactions of Nitric Acid on TiO2 Rutile (110) and Anatase (101) surfaces

The adsorption and reactions of the monomer and dimer of nitric acid on TiO2 rutile (110) and anatase (101) surfaces have been studied by first-principles density functional theory with ultrasoft pseudopotential approximation. The most stable configuration of HNO3 on the rutile surface is a molecular monodentate adsorbed on the 5-fold coordinated Ti atom with the hydrogen bonded to a neighboring surface bridging oxygen with the adsorption energy of 6.7 kcal/mol. It can dissociate its H atom to a nearest bridged oxygen with almost no barrier to produce NO3(a) + H(a). The rotation of NO3 requires a barrier of 12.2 kcal/mol to form the didentate configuration, Ti5c−ON(O)−Ti5cH−O2c(a), which adsorbs on two 5-fold coordinated Ti atoms with the adsorption energy of 16.5 kcal/mol. In the case of the adsorption of 2HNO3 molecules, the most stable configuration, 2(Ti5c−ON(O)OH...O2c(a)), has a structure similar to two single HNO3 adsorbates on two 5-fold coordinated Ti atoms with the adsorption energy of 12.8 kcal...