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Shahrezaei M, Hejazi SMH, Kmentova H, Sedajova V, Zboril R, Naldoni A, Kment S. Ultrasound-Driven Defect Engineering in TiO 2-x Nanotubes─Toward Highly Efficient Platinum Single Atom-Enhanced Photocatalytic Water Splitting. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2023; 15:37976-37985. [PMID: 37490013 PMCID: PMC10416212 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c04811] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2023] [Accepted: 07/05/2023] [Indexed: 07/26/2023]
Abstract
Single-atom catalysts (SACs) have demonstrated superior catalytic activity and selectivity compared to nanoparticle catalysts due to their high reactivity and atom efficiency. However, stabilizing SACs within hosting substrates and their controllable loading preventing single atom clustering remain the key challenges in this field. Moreover, the direct comparison of (co-) catalytic effect of single atoms vs nanoparticles is still highly challenging. Here, we present a novel ultrasound-driven strategy for stabilizing Pt single-atomic sites over highly ordered TiO2 nanotubes. This controllable low-temperature defect engineering enables entrapment of platinum single atoms and controlling their content through the reaction time of consequent chemical impregnation. The novel methodology enables achieving nearly 50 times higher normalized hydrogen evolution compared to pristine titania nanotubes. Moreover, the developed procedure allows the decoration of titania also with ultrasmall nanoparticles through a longer impregnation time of the substrate in a very dilute hexachloroplatinic acid solution. The comparison shows a 10 times higher normalized hydrogen production of platinum single atoms compared to nanoparticles. The mechanistic study shows that the novel approach creates homogeneously distributed defects, such as oxygen vacancies and Ti3+ species, which effectively trap and stabilize Pt2+ and Pt4+ single atoms. The optimized platinum single-atom photocatalyst shows excellent performance of photocatalytic water splitting and hydrogen evolution under one sun solar-simulated light, with TOF values being one order of magnitude higher compared to those of traditional thermal reduction-based methods. The single-atom engineering based on the creation of ultrasound-triggered chemical traps provides a pathway for controllable assembling stable and highly active single-atomic site catalysts on metal oxide support layers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahdi Shahrezaei
- Czech
Advanced Technology and Research Institute, Regional Centre of Advanced
Technologies and Materials, Palacký
University Olomouc, Slechtitelu 27, 77900 Olomouc, Czech Republic
- Department
of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Palacky University, 17. listopadu 1192/12, 77900 Olomouc, Czech Republic
| | - S. M. Hossein Hejazi
- Czech
Advanced Technology and Research Institute, Regional Centre of Advanced
Technologies and Materials, Palacký
University Olomouc, Slechtitelu 27, 77900 Olomouc, Czech Republic
- CEET,
Nanotechnology Centre, VŠB−Technical
University of Ostrava, 17. listopadu 2172/15, 70800 Ostrava-Poruba, Czech Republic
| | - Hana Kmentova
- Czech
Advanced Technology and Research Institute, Regional Centre of Advanced
Technologies and Materials, Palacký
University Olomouc, Slechtitelu 27, 77900 Olomouc, Czech Republic
| | - Veronika Sedajova
- Czech
Advanced Technology and Research Institute, Regional Centre of Advanced
Technologies and Materials, Palacký
University Olomouc, Slechtitelu 27, 77900 Olomouc, Czech Republic
| | - Radek Zboril
- Czech
Advanced Technology and Research Institute, Regional Centre of Advanced
Technologies and Materials, Palacký
University Olomouc, Slechtitelu 27, 77900 Olomouc, Czech Republic
- CEET,
Nanotechnology Centre, VŠB−Technical
University of Ostrava, 17. listopadu 2172/15, 70800 Ostrava-Poruba, Czech Republic
| | - Alberto Naldoni
- Department
of Chemistry and NIS Centre, University
of Turin, Turin 10125, Italy
| | - Stepan Kment
- Czech
Advanced Technology and Research Institute, Regional Centre of Advanced
Technologies and Materials, Palacký
University Olomouc, Slechtitelu 27, 77900 Olomouc, Czech Republic
- CEET,
Nanotechnology Centre, VŠB−Technical
University of Ostrava, 17. listopadu 2172/15, 70800 Ostrava-Poruba, Czech Republic
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