Single atomic Pt on amorphous ZrO2 nanowires for advanced photocatalytic CO2 reduction

Abstract The photocatalytic reduction of CO2 is a reaction that involves multi-electron and multi-conversion processes, and its efficiency is strongly affected by the electron transport pathways on the surface of the catalytic material. Here, Pt single-atom-anchored amorphous ZrO2 nanowires (Pt SA/ZrO2) are fabricated as an efficient photocatalyst for CO2 reduction. The co-catalyst exhibited a superior CO yielding rate (16.61 μmol g-1 h-1) and selectivity (97.6 %) outperforming counterparts and most of previously reported ZrO2-based photocatalysts. The amorphous nature endows the material with inherent abundant defects (e.g., oxygen vacancies) and Zr-O-Pt charge bridges allow rapid photoelectron transfer, jointly contributing to the enhanced CO2 reduction performance. We anticipate that design strategies based on anchoring single atoms on amorphous nano-substrates will inspire further development of advanced photocatalysts.