@article{Dai2023, 
author = {Fangxu Dai and Mingming Zhang and Mingzhong Mi and Zhenjiang Li and Jun Xing and Lei Wang},
title = {Pt-surface oxygen vacancies coupling accelerated photo-charge extraction and activated hydrogen evolution},
year = {2023},
journal = {Nano Research},
volume = {16},
number = {4},
pages = {4736-4741},
keywords = {oxygen vacancies, co-catalyst, surface hydroxyl, photocatalytic, hydrogen evolution reaction (HER)},
url = {https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.1007/s12274-022-5181-x},
doi = {10.1007/s12274-022-5181-x},
abstract = {Semiconductors-based heterogeneous photocatalytic water splitting has been extensively studied, but it still remains challenging to accelerate the separation of electron–hole pairs and facilitate the reaction kinetics. Here we report a general strategy to fabricate highly efficient Pt/TiO2 photocatalyst by coupling the Pt co-catalysts and surface oxygen vacancies (VO) of TiO2. TiO2 was pre-modified with alkali or alkaline earth metals ion solutions, which produce a large number of surface hydroxyl on TiO2. Subsequently, the photodeposited Pt sub-nanoparticles substitute surface hydroxyl and induce surface VO on TiO2. The coupling of Pt and surface VO on TiO2 can accelerate the extraction of photo-charges through the interaction of Pt–VO–Ti bonds and reduce the hydrogen evolution barrier, thereby promoting the photocatalytic activity. The synthesized Pt-VO-TiO2 sample exhibits a photocatalytic hydrogen evolution activity as high as 1.5 L·g−1·h−1, which is 2.2 times that of traditional Pt/TiO2. Our findings in-depth understand the synergistic effect of co-catalysts and defects on photocatalysis and open up new possibilities for achieving robust photocatalytic water splitting.}
}