A computational study on the adsorption configurations and reactions of phosphorous acid on TiO ₂ anatase (101) and rutile (110) surfaces

We report the result of a density functional theory study on the adsorption and decomposition pathways of phosphorous acid (H ₃PO ₃) on TiO ₂ anatase (101) and rutile (110) surfaces. The most stable adsorption structure for H ₃PO ₃ and its isomer, HP(O)(OH) ₂, is a monodentate adsorption mode for the anatase surface with calculated adsorption energies 23.5 and 38.5 kcal/mol and a bidentate adsorption mode for rutile surface with 26.7 and 36.6 kcal/mol. The mechanisms for the surface reactions of these species have been explicitly elucidated with the computed potential energy surfaces. The barriers for the stepwise H ₃PO ₃ H-migration to two nearby bridged O atoms reactions on anatase leads to Ti-OP(OH)O-Ti(a) + 2H-O _b(a) with 7.9 and 6.8 kcal/mol barriers. Even lower activation barriers (1.3 and 2.9 kcal/mol) have been obtained on the rutile (110) surface for the same bond breaking modes. The intermediate Ti-OP(OH)O-Ti(a) thus formed on both surfaces can further decompose via two distinct pathways through H-migration to the P atom and H ₂O elimination to produce Ti-OP(H)(O)O-Ti(a) and Ti-OPO-Ti(a), respectively. In addition, we have calculated the adsorption and reactions of the dimer of H ₃PO ₃ on both surfaces. The most noticeable difference occurs in the energy levels of the H ₃PO ₃ reactions on the anatase and rutile surfaces, with the rutile being more reactive than the anatase surface. The predicted adsorption energies show that Ti-OP(OH)O-Ti(a) with two hydrogen atoms on bridged surface oxygen atoms is 47.1 kcal/mol for anatase and 42.4 kcal/mol for rutile; both are low when compared with the Ti-OB(OH)O-Ti(a) on the same surfaces, 140.1 and 134.6 kcal/mol, respectively. Our density of states analysis shows that OB(OH)O has a larger overlap with the TiO ₂ surface than OP(OH)O has, favoring the former's charge transfer efficiency.