The TiO2(110) surface, prepared with
different densities of anion vacancy defect sites, has been
investigated
by studies of O2 photodesorption at 105 K. Two
separate O2 photodesorption processes, α1 and
α2, are
detected and are postulated to be due to the presence of two different
types of defect sites produced by
annealing the crystal in vacuum before O2 adsorption.
The measured photodesorption cross sections for
these two states are
Q
α
1
-O
2
= (3.1
± 0.2) × 10-16 cm2 and
Q
α
2
-O
2
= (4.3
± 0.3) × 10-17 cm2 for 3.96
± 0.07
eV photons. Both O2 states photooxidize CO chemisorbed
on the reduced TiO2(110) surface. While
the
yield of the CO2 photoproduct increases with increasing
crystal annealing temperature (and increasing
defect coverage), the yield of α1-O2 and
α2-O2 passes through a maximum at an
annealing temperature
of ∼600 K.