Hydrogen-Bond Network Promotes Water Splitting on the TiO2 Surface

Breaking the strong covalent O-H bond of an isolated H₂O molecule is difficult, but it can be largely facilitated when the H₂O molecule is connected with others through hydrogen-bonding. How a hydrogen-bond network forms and performs becomes crucial for water splitting in natural photosynthesis and artificial photocatalysis and is awaiting a microscopic and spectroscopic understanding at the molecular level. At the prototypical photocatalytic H₂O/anatase-TiO₂(001)-(1×4) interface, we report the hydrogen-bond network can promote the coupled proton and hole transfer for water splitting. The formation of a hydrogen-bond network is controlled by precisely tuning the coverage of water to above one monolayer. Under ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation, the hydrogen-bond network opens a cascaded channel for the transfer of a photoexcited hole, concomitant with the release of the proton to form surface hydroxyl groups. The yielded hydroxyl groups provide excess electrons to the TiO₂ surface, causing the reduction of Ti⁴⁺ to Ti³⁺ and leading to the emergence of gap states, as monitored by in situ UV/X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The density functional theory calculation reveals that the water splitting becomes an exothermic process through hole oxidation with the assistance of the hydrogen-bond network. In addition to the widely concerned exotic activity from photocatalysts, our study demonstrates the internal hydrogen-bond network, which is ubiquitous at practical aqueous/catalyst interfaces, is also indispensable for water splitting.