The surface chemistry of chromyl chloride
(CrO2Cl2) on TiO2(110) was
examined with TPD, AES, ΔΦ
measurements, SSIMS, and XPS. CrO2Cl2
adsorbs on TiO2(110) at 130 K with a constant,
coverage-independent sticking probability, which is presumably near unity based
on TPD. ΔΦ data suggest the molecule
is adsorbed with the oxygens bound to the surface and the chlorines
pointing into vacuum. In TPD, multilayer
CrO2Cl2 desorption occurs at 156 K, and
monolayer desorption states occur at about 295 and 430 K.
Approximately 0.09 ML (1 ML = 5.2 × 1014
sites/cm2) desorbs in each of the latter states. The
remaining
adsorbed CrO2Cl2 (0.48 ML) decomposes
irreversibly above 500 K, eventually resulting in CrCl2
desorption
above 700 K. No other decomposition products are observed in TPD.
Adsorption of CrO2Cl2 at 585
K
results in multilayer CrCl2 formation, while adsorption at
or below 500 K results in a saturated monolayer.
Between 500 and 700 K, XPS results suggest that the Cr deposited
from CrO2Cl2 decomposition is
reduced,
possibly as the result of charge transfer from the defects in the
n-doped TiO2(110). SSIMS experiments
conducted on the 18O-enriched TiO2(110)
indicate that 16O brought in by
CrO2Cl2 is incorporated into
the
surface, whereas TPD indicates that only a small fraction of this
incorporated 16O is due to isotopic exchange
into the desorbing parent at 400 K. Since no oxygen-containing
decomposition products were observed in
TPD, the decomposition of CrO2Cl2 on
TiO2(110) involves reaction at reduced surface sites
(oxygen vacancies).
As evidence for this, SSIMS indicates that the reaction of
18O2 with
Ti16O2(110) resulting in 18O
incorporation
proceeds above 520 K presumably by the formation of oxygen vacancies
from 16O2 desorption. These
results
suggest that the reduction and potential immobilization of Cr(VI)
species on TiO2 materials may occur thermally
if the appropriate surface defect sites are present.