Glycerol Adsorption on TiO₂ Surfaces: A Systematic Periodic DFT Study

Conversion of glycerol to added-value products is desirable due to its surplus during biodiesel synthesis. TiO₂ has been the most explored catalyst. We performed a systematic study of glycerol adsorption on anatase (101), anatase (001), and rutile (110) TiO₂ at the Density Functional Theory level. We found several adsorption modes on these surfaces, with anatase (101) being the less reactive one, leading to adsorption energies between -0.8 and -0.4 eV, with all adsorptions molecular in nature. On the contrary, anatase (001) is the most reactive surface, leading to both molecular and dissociative adsorption modes, with energies ranging from -4 to -1 eV and undergoing severe surface reconstructions in some cases. Rutile (110) also shows both molecular and dissociative adsorptions, but it is less reactive than anatase (001). Surfaces with oxygen vacancies affects the adsorbed states and energies. The electronic structure analysis reveals that glycerol adsorption mainly affects the band gap of the material and not the individual contributions to the valence and conduction band. Bader charge analysis shows that strong adsorption modes on anatase (001) and rutile (110) are associated with large charge transfer from glycerol to the surface, while weak and molecular adsorption modes involve low charge transfer.