Abstract
We study the relation between hydrogen bonding and the vibrational frequency spectra of water on the (110) surface of rutile (α-TiO2) with three structural layers of adsorbed water. Using ab-initio molecular dynamics simulations at 280, 300 and 320K, we find strong, crystallographically-controlled adsorption sites, in general agreement with synchrotron X-ray and classical MD simulations. We demonstrate that these sites are produced by strong hydrogen bonds formed between the surface oxygen atoms and sorbed water molecules. The strength of these bonds is manifested by substantial broadening of the stretching mode vibrational band. The overall vibrational spectrum obtained from our simulations is in good agreement with inelastic neutron scattering experiments. We correlate the vibrational spectrum with different bonds at the surface in order to transform these vibrational measurements into a spectroscopy of surface interactions.
