Published in

Wiley, Advanced Materials, 5(35), 2022

DOI: 10.1002/adma.202206569

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Light‐Induced Agglomeration of Single‐Atom Platinum in Photocatalysis

This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

Full text: Unavailable

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Orange circle
Postprint: archiving restricted
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

AbstractWith recent advances in the field of single‐atoms (SAs) used in photocatalysis, an unprecedented performance of atomically dispersed co‐catalysts has been achieved. However, the stability and agglomeration of SA co‐catalysts on the semiconductor surface may represent a critical issue in potential applications. Here, the photoinduced destabilization of Pt SAs on the benchmark photocatalyst, TiO2, is described. In aqueous solutions within illumination timescales ranging from few minutes to several hours, light‐induced agglomeration of Pt SAs to ensembles (dimers, multimers) and finally nanoparticles takes place. The kinetics critically depends on the presence of sacrificial hole scavengers and the used light intensity. Density‐functional theory calculations attribute the light induced destabilization of the SA Pt species to binding of surface‐coordinated Pt with solution‐hydrogen (adsorbed H atoms), which consequently weakens the Pt SA bonding to the TiO2 surface. Despite the gradual aggregation of Pt SAs into surface clusters and their overall reduction to metallic state, which involves >90% of Pt SAs, the overall photocatalytic H2 evolution remains virtually unaffected.