Tuning the chemical functionality of a gas sensitive material: Water adsorption on SnO2(1 0 1)

Photoemission and density functional theory studies show that water adsorbs dissociatively on the SnO2(1 0 1) surface in the presence of terminating oxygen atoms and molecularly if these surface oxygen atoms are removed. The different chemical surface responses of these two bulk terminations of SnO2 also change the water induced band bending and consequently the conductivity of the gas sensing material.