Theoretical study of the electronic structure and stability of titanium dioxide clusters (TiO2)n with n = 1-9

The electronic structure and the stability of both neutral and singly charged (TiO2)n clusters with n = 1-9 have been investigated using the density functional B3LYP/LANL2DZ method. The lowest-lying singlet clusters tend to form some compact structures with one or two terminal Ti-O bonds, which are about 1.4-2.5 eV more stable than the corresponding triplet structures. For the lowest-lying structures, strong infrared absorption lines at 988-1020 cm(-1) due to terminal Ti-O bonds and below 930 cm(-1) due to Ti-O-Ti bridging bonds may be observed, with some characteristic lines at 530-760 cm(-1) due to 3-fold coordinated O-atoms that are comparable with the spectra of rutile and anatase bulk. The holes and excited electrons within triplet structures tend to be localized on the least coordinated O- and Ti-atoms, respectively, with some exceptions possibly due to the electron-hole interaction. The extra electrons within (TiO2)n- clusters and the holes within (TiO2)n+ clusters show a clearer preference of location on the least coordinated Ti- and O-atoms, respectively. For the lowest-lying (TiO2)n clusters, the cluster formation energy per TiO2 unit and the electron affinity tend to increase whereas the ionization potential tends to decrease with the cluster size n. On the other hand, the singlet-triplet and HOMO-LUMO gaps represent the lower and upper limits of the TiO2 bulk band gaps, respectively. The theoretical results agree well with the available experimental data and may be helpful for understanding the chemistry of small (TiO2)n clusters.