Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 40: Solid-Liquid Interfaces

O 40.14: Poster

Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 18:15–21:00, Poster A

Investigating the Water-Titanium Dioxide Interface using SFG Spectroscopy — •Simon Johannes Schmitt, Saman Hosseinpour, and Ellen H.G. Backus — Max-Planck-Institut für PolymerforschungAckermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany,

Since the world’s fossil fuel supply will run out in a few decades, it is crucial to find cheap and environmentally friendly alternatives. Hydrogen is a good candidate, since it is obtainable by photocatalytic dissociation of water, when in contact with titanium dioxide surfaces, as has been discovered over 40 years ago. However, the fundamentals of the process are still not fully understood. To start, we measured Sum Frequency Generation (SFG) spectra of the water-TiO₂ interface. By overlapping a visible and an infrared laser beam in space and time on the sample the vibrational spectrum of the molecules at the interface can be obtained. We present data on TiO₂ single crystals with different facets and on sputtered thin films of various thicknesses. Moreover we will outline how we plan to use 2D-SFG to investigate the heterogeneity of the water molecules at the interface and time resolved measurements to follow the photo-induced dissociation of water at the interface in real-time.