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An isolation strategy to anchor atomic Ni or Co cocatalysts on TiO2(A) for photocatalytic hydrogen production

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Abstract

TiO2 has been considered as an ideal photocatalyst for water splitting. However, narrow light absorbance, low charge separation efficiency, and rare surface active sites lead to the low photocatalytic efficiency of TiO2. Although extensive research attempted to improve the situation, there is still lack of method for constructing high active and noble-metal-free TiO2 photocatalyst for H2 evolution reactions (HER). In this work, we loaded single atomic (SA) Ni (or Co) on the surface of anatase TiO2 (TiO2(A)) nanosheets by an isolation strategy. Ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid and ethylene glycol (EDTA-EG) compounds were used to chelate metal ions in solution and form carbon quantum dots in the following thermal treatment to isolate the metal ions on surface of TiO2(A). The prepared Ni SA/TiO2(A) catalyst owned a “skin wrapped body” structure with in-situ formed two-dimensional (2D) heterojunction facilitating the fast electron transfer. As a result, the Ni SA/TiO2(A) catalyst showed a high H2 evolution rate of 2,900 µmol·g−1·h−1. This work provides an isolation strategy for constructing promising single-atom metal catalyst for photocatalysis and beyond.

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Acknowledgements

We genuinely appreciate financial support from the Strategic Emerging Industry Development Funds of Shenzhen (No. JCYJ20170817161720484).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Shangchun Lv, Mengxi Pei, Yuxiang Liu, Zhichun Si, Duan Weng & Feiyu Kang

  2. The Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Yuxiang Liu, Xiaodong Wu, Rui Ran, Duan Weng & Feiyu Kang

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  1. Shangchun Lv
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  2. Mengxi Pei
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Correspondence to Zhichun Si or Feiyu Kang.

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Lv, S., Pei, M., Liu, Y. et al. An isolation strategy to anchor atomic Ni or Co cocatalysts on TiO2(A) for photocatalytic hydrogen production. Nano Res. 15, 5848–5856 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4217-6

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