@misc{WirthKirschWlosczyketal.2016,
  author    = {Wirth, Jonas and Kirsch, Harald and Wlosczyk, Sebastian and Tong, Yujin and Saalfrank, Peter and Kramer Campen, Richard},
  title     = {Characterization of water dissociation on α-Al2O3(1102)},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-394497},
  pages     = {14822 -- 14832},
  year      = {2016},
  abstract  = {The interaction of water with α-alumina (i.e. α-Al2O3) surfaces is important in a variety of applications and a useful model for the interaction of water with environmentally abundant aluminosilicate phases. Despite its significance, studies of water interaction with α-Al2O3 surfaces other than the (0001) are extremely limited. Here we characterize the interaction of water (D2O) with a well defined α-Al2O3(1[1 with combining macron]02) surface in UHV both experimentally, using temperature programmed desorption and surface-specific vibrational spectroscopy, and theoretically, using periodic-slab density functional theory calculations. This combined approach makes it possible to demonstrate that water adsorption occurs only at a single well defined surface site (the so-called 1-4 configuration) and that at this site the barrier between the molecularly and dissociatively adsorbed forms is very low: 0.06 eV. A subset of OD stretch vibrations are parallel to this dissociation coordinate, and thus would be expected to be shifted to low frequencies relative to an uncoupled harmonic oscillator. To quantify this effect we solve the vibrational Schr{\"o}dinger equation along the dissociation coordinate and find fundamental frequencies red-shifted by more than 1500 cm-1. Within the context of this model, at moderate temperatures, we further find that some fraction of surface deuterons are likely delocalized: dissociatively and molecularly absorbed states are no longer distinguishable.},
  language  = {en}
}
@misc{WirthNeumannAntoniettietal.2014,
  author    = {Wirth, Jonas and Neumann, Rainer and Antonietti, Markus and Saalfrank, Peter},
  title     = {Adsorption and photocatalytic splitting of water on graphitic carbon nitride},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-74391},
  pages     = {15917 -- 15926},
  year      = {2014},
  abstract  = {Graphitic carbon nitride, g-C₃N₄, is a promising organic photo-catalyst for a variety of redox reactions. In order to improve its efficiency in a systematic manner, however, a fundamental understanding of the microscopic interaction between catalyst, reactants and products is crucial. Here we present a systematic study of water adsorption on g-C₃N₄ by means of density functional theory and the density functional based tight-binding method as a prerequisite for understanding photocatalytic water splitting. We then analyze this prototypical redox reaction on the basis of a thermodynamic model providing an estimate of the overpotential for both water oxidation and H⁺ reduction. While the latter is found to occur readily upon irradiation with visible light, we derive a prohibitive overpotential of 1.56 eV for the water oxidation half reaction, comparing well with the experimental finding that in contrast to H₂ production O₂ evolution is only possible in the presence of oxidation cocatalysts.},
  language  = {en}
}