PTRF-XAFS Study of Atomically Dispersed Cu Species on a TiO 2 (110) Surface Premodified with Functional Organic Molecules

Introduction Precise size control of metal species on oxide surfaces, especially in the range of <1 nm, is now highly important to develop the next-generation catalysts, sensors, and electronic devices. However this is not easy since metal atoms are easily aggregated to form large particles on oxide surfaces. Our group has developed the “premodified surface method” to obtain a highly dispersed metal species, where before metal deposition an oxide surface is precovered with a functional organic molecule possessing a substituent atom which can strongly coordinate to a metal atom [1-2]. Here, Cu was vacuum-deposited onto the TiO2(110) surface premodified with ortho-mercaptobenzoic acid molecules (o-MBA), and the structure of the deposited Cu species was determined by Polarization dependent TotalReflection Fluorescence (PTRF) XAFS.