Diaminoethane adsorption and water substitution on hydrated TiO2: a thermochemical study based on first-principles calculations

Epoxy-amines are used as structural adhesives deposited on Ti. The amine adhesion to a Ti surface depends highly on the surface state (oxidation, hydroxylation). Amines may adsorb above preadsorbed water molecules or substitute them to bind directly to surface Ti4+ Lewis acid sites. The adsorption of a model amine molecule, diaminoethane (DAE), on a model surface, hydrated TiO2-anatase (101) surface, is investigated using Density Functional Theory including Dispersive forces (DFT-D) calculations. DAE adsorption and water substitution by DAE are exothermic processes and turn nearly isoenergetic at high coverage with adsorption–substitution energies around −0.3 eV (including dispersion forces and ZPE). Complementary ab initio molecular dynamics studies also suggest that the formation of an amine–water interaction induces water desorption from the surface at room temperature, a preliminary step towards the amine–Ti bond formation. An atomistic thermodynamic approach is developed to evaluate the interfacial free energy balance of both processes (adsorption and substitution). The main contributions to the energetic balance are dispersive interactions between molecules and the surface on the exergonic side, translational and rotational entropic contributions on the endergonic one. The substitution process is stabilized by 0.55 eV versus the adsorption one when free solvation, rotational and vibrational energies are considered. The main contribution to this free energy gain is due to water solvation. The calculations suggest that in toluene solvent with a water concentration of 10−4 M or less, a full DAE layer replaces a preadsorbed water layer for a threshold concentration of DAE ≥ 0.1 M.