Surface-Mediated Visible-Light Photo-oxidation on Pure TiO₂(001)

Abstract

We used STM to observe visible light photo-oxidation reactions of formic acid on the ordered lattice-work structure of a TiO(2)(001) surface for the first time. The nanostructured surface makes the band gap significantly smaller than 3.0 eV only at the surface layer, and the surface state of the crystal enables a visible light response.