Anchoring ultrafine metallic and oxidized Pt nanoclusters on yolk-shell TiO2 for unprecedentedly high photocatalytic hydrogen production

Abstract We demonstrate an alkali modification process to produce highly dispersed ultrafine Pt nanoclusters with metallic Pt 0 and oxidized Pt 2+ species as co-catalyst anchored on nanosheet-constructed yolk-shell TiO 2 (NYTiO 2 -Pt) acting as light harvesting reactor for highly efficient photocatalytic H 2 production. Benefiting from the high surface area, highly dispersed ultrafine Pt nanoclusters (~0.6 nm) with Pt 0 and Pt 2+ species and special nanosheet-constructed yolk-shell structure, this novel light harvesting reactor exhibits excellent performance for photocatalytic H 2 production. The NYTiO 2 -Pt-0.5 (0.188 wt% Pt) demonstrates an unprecedentedly high H 2 evolution rate of 20.88 mmol h −1  g −1 with excellent photocatalytic stability, which is 87 times than that of NYTiO 2 -Pt-3.0 (0.24 mmol h −1  g −1 , 1.88 wt% Pt), and also much higher than those of other TiO 2 nanostructures with the same Pt content. Such H 2 evolution rate is the highest reported for photocatalytic H 2 production with such a low Pt content under simulated solar light. Our strategy here suggests that via alkali modifying the photocatalysts, we can not only enhance the H 2 production for solar energy conversion but also significantly decrease the noble metal content for cost saving.