The interaction of water and methanol with MgO samples with different distributions of oxide ions of low coordination has been investigated by physical techniques, particularly in situ photoluminescence. First, the three photoluminescence fingerprints of oxide ions vs their coordination number have been obtained for samples outgassed at 1273 K. By a pseudo quantitative approach, the relative distribution of the oxide ions of low coordination O(2-)LC (where LC = 3C, 4C, and 5C refer to tri-, tetra-, and pentacoordinated oxide ions, respectively) was determined and correlated with the shape and size of MgO particles determined by TEM and XRD. The photoluminescence of surfaces of MgO obtained after outgassing at increasing temperature or after interaction of water or methanol with a clean surface, i.e., obtained by outgassing at 1273 K, was then studied and evidenced three other photoluminescent species assigned to surface OH groups. The nature and mechanism of formation of the hydroxyls groups responsible for these new luminescent species are discussed in relation with their thermal stability and FTIR experiments.

The adsorption geometries, energies, and vibrational frequencies of methanol on MgO defective surfaces have been calculated by periodic DFT simulations. The results are very comparable with those obtained with water and are also in very good accordance with microcalorimetry and infrared experiments. At low coverage, the dissociation is observed on all defects involving ions in low coordinations. Over and above the coordination number of surface ions, the adsorption energy is strongly governed by the surface topology: dissociation on confined sites gives rise to methoxy groups highly stabilized by bridging two or even three cations. The occurrence of such very strong sites on MgO powder is confirmed by microcalorimetry. The dissociation ability depends on the methanol coverage because it modifies the surface relaxation and the network of H bonds, resulting, for a given defect, in similar adsorption energies for molecular and dissociated species at high coverage. This explains why there are more strong sites (quantified by microcalorimetry) than dissociating sites (quantified by infrared).