Oxygen vacancy confining effect on photocatalytic efficiency of Pt1-black TiO2 single-atom photocatalysts for hydrogen generation and phenol decomposition

• Published in: Environmental chemistry letters Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 1815 - 1821
• Main Authors: Wang, Tian, Zhu, Yunqing, Luo, Zhaoyue, Li, Yingxuan, Niu, Junfeng, Wang, Chuanyi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-04-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Analytical Chemistry; Biofuels; Catalysts; Decomposition; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Efficiency; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental cleanup; Geochemistry; Hydrogen production; Original Paper; Oxygen; Phenols; Photocatalysis; Photocatalysts; Pollution; Stability; Titanium dioxide; Vacancies; Photocatalytic; Black TiO; Decomposition; Hydrogen evolution; Pt single atom
• ISSN: 1610-3653; 1610-3661
• DOI: 10.1007/s10311-020-01144-0

Energy and pollution are major issues worldwide, calling for advanced techniques of biofuel production and environmental remediation, such solar photocatalysis. Engineering the co-catalyst at atom level has recently been proposed to increase the photocatalytic efficiency. Here, we report a new strategy for preparing highly stable single-atom photocatalysts containing abundant isolated atomic sites. We used oxygen vacancies (Vos) to confine Pt atoms and to produce single-atom photocatalysts, labeled Pt
0.254
/black TiO
2
, that are more efficient and more stable. Results show that Pt atoms are mainly located on surface oxygen vacancies and are rather uniformly distributed on the surface of black TiO
2
at a concentration of 0.254 wt %. The single-atom photocatalyst displayed excellent catalytic efficiency and stability for hydrogen generation and phenol decomposition. Overall, our findings propose an alternative method to fabricate and engineer single-atom photocatalysts.