Morphology control of anatase TiO₂ for well-defined surface chemistry

A specific allotrope of titanium dioxide (anatase) was synthesized both with a standard thermodynamic morphology ({101}-anatase) and with a highly anisotropic morphology ({001}-anatase) dominated by the {001} facet (81%). The surface chemistry of both samples after dehydroxylation was studied by ¹H NMR and FT-IR. The influence of surface fluorides on the surface chemistry was also studied by ¹H NMR, FT-IR and DFT. Full attribution of the IR spectra of anatase with dominant {001} facets could be provided based on experimental data and further confirmed by DFT. Our results showed that chemisorbed H₂O molecules are still present on anatase after dehydroxylation at 350 °C, and that the type of surface hydroxyls present on the {001} facet is dependent on the presence of fluorides. They also provided general insight into the nature of the surface species on both fluorinated and fluorine-free anatase. The use of vanadium oxychloride (VOCl₃) allowed the determination of the accessibility of the various OH groups spectroscopically observed.