X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Study Of Adsorption Of (3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane And N-propyltriethoxysilane On A Rutile TiO2(110) Surface

Division of Synchrotron Radiation Research, Department of Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Adv. Mater. Lett., 2015, 6 (4), pp 279-283

DOI: 10.5185/amlett.2015.SMS1

Publication Date (Web): Mar 21, 2015

Copyright © IAAM-VBRI Press

E-mail: shilpi.chaudhary@sljus.lu.se

Abstract

We have studied the adsorption of two silane compounds, (3-mercaptopropyl) trimethoxysilane (MPTMS) and n-propyltriethoxysilane (PTES), on a rutile TiO2(110) surface using angle dependent X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The observation of the S 2p line, in the case of MPTMS, and the C 1s line for both MPTMS and PTES confirms the adsorption of the molecules. For a dose of 122 Langmuirs of MPTMS we find room temperature coverage of 0.55 monolayers, while for a 60 Langmuir dose of PTES the coverage is found to be 0.89 monolayers. Thus, MPTMS has a considerably lower sticking coefficient on the rutile TiO2(110) surface than PTES. Both PTES and MPTES are found to bind dissociatively to the surface. An analysis of angle dependent data further suggests that for MPTMS the thiol group and thus alkyl chain points away from the surface, while for a 0.5 monolayer coverage of PTES the alkyl chain is oriented towards the surface. A higher coverage, ~1 monolayer, the behavior seems to be reversed for at least a fraction of all molecules. Temperature programmed XPS measurements suggest that the oxy groups of both molecules desorb from the surface at 550 K, which is in accordance with literature. The present study thus provides information on how these silane coupling agents bind to titanium oxide and what their molecular orientation is on the surface.

Keywords

(3-mercaptopropyl) trimethoxysilane, n-propyltriethoxysilane, silane coupling agents, titanium dioxide, XPS.