AVS 51st International Symposium
    Surface Science Thursday Sessions
       Session SS1-ThM

Paper SS1-ThM2
Nucleation and Growth of 1B Metals on Rutile TiO2(110): Role of Oxygen Vacancies

Thursday, November 18, 2004, 8:40 am, Room 210B

Session: Metal Oxide and Clusters III: Supported Cluster Formation and Reactivity
Presenter: D. Pillay, The University of Texas at Austin
Authors: D. Pillay, The University of Texas at Austin
G.S. Hwang, The University of Texas at Austin
Correspondent: Click to Email
Oxide supported metal nanoparticles exhibit distinctly different chemical and physical properties from their bulk counter parts. The unique properties are greatly determined by their size and shape. Tailoring the structural properties with atomic scale precision will therefore offer great opportunities to open up a range of novel chemical, biological, and electronic applications. Due to the complexity of oxide-metal interactions, many fundamental aspects of metal particle nucleation and growth on an oxide are not well understood. We have investigated the nucleation and growth of 1B metals (Cu, Ag, Au) on a rutile TiO2(110) surface using density functional theory slab calculations. Our results clearly demonstrate that Au shows a distinctly different growth behavior from Ag and Cu. In this talk, we will present i) diffusion, nucleation, and early stage of growth of 1B metals on reduced TiO2(110) and ii) role of oxygen vacancies in the metal particle growth. Also, we will discuss the underlying reasons for sintering enhancement upon O2 exposure.