Abstract
The surfaces of model metal oxides offer many fundamental examples where the outcome of a specific chemical reaction might be linked to the surface structure and local electronic properties. In this work the reaction of simple molecules such as ammonia, alcohols, carboxylic and amino acids is studied on two metal oxide single crystals: rutile TiO2(110) and (001) and fluorite UO2(111). Studies are conducted with XPS, TPD, and Plane Wave Density Functional Theory (DFT). The effect of surface structure is outlined by comparing the TiO2(110) rutile surface to those of TiO2(001), while the effect of surface point defects is mainly discussed in the case of stoichiometric and substoichiometric UO2(111).