Theoretical modeling of electronic excitations of gas-phase and solvated TiO2 nanoclusters and nanoparticles of interest in photocatalysis

Abstract

The optical absorption spectra of (TiO2)n, nanoclusters (n = 1-20) and nanoparticles (n = 35, 84) have been calculated from the frequency-dependent dielectric function in the independent particle approximation under the framework of density functional theory. The PBE generalized gradient approach based functional, the so-called PBE+U method and the PBE0 and PBEx hybrid functionals containing 25% and 12.5% of nonlocal Fock exchange, respectively have been used. The simulated spectra have been obtained in the gas phase and in water on previously PBE0 optimized atomic structures. The effect of the solvent has been accounted for by using an implicit water solvation model. For the smallest nanoclusters, the spectra show discrete peaks, whereas for the largest nanoclusters and for the nanoparticles they resemble a continuum absorption band. In the gas phase and for a given density functional, the onset of the absorption (optical gap, Ogap) remains relatively constant for all nanoparticle sizes although it increases with the percentage of nonlocal Fock exchange, as expected. For all tested functionals, the tendency of Ogap in water is very similar to that observed in the gas phase with an almost constant upshift. For comparison, the optical gap has also been calculated at the TD-DFT level with the PBEx functional in the gas phase and in water. Both approaches agree reasonably well although the TD-DFT gap values are lower than those derived from the dielectric-function. Overall, the position of the spectral maxima and the width of the spectra are relatively constant and independent of particle size which may have implications in the understanding of photocatalysis by TiO2.