Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.128, No.12, 4074-4078, 2006
Microfaceting explains complicated structures on rutile TiO2 surfaces
Surface structures on rutile TO2 (001) have been studied by using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and density functional calculations. Prior investigations have observed many kinds of complicated surface structures; however, detailed atomic structures and the mechanism of the reconstructions are still unknown. We evaluate the energetical stability of the surface structures. The calculational results suggest that a {111} microfaceting model is energetically stable compared with the unreconstructed (1 x 1) model. We propose microfaceting structural models that are in good agreement with atomically resolved STM images. This structural concept can be extended to other rutile TiO2 surfaces in general.