A Few Pt Single Atoms Are Responsible for the Overall Co‐Catalytic Activity in Pt/TiO<sub>2</sub> Photocatalytic H<sub>2</sub> Generation
Shanshan Qin, Nikita Denisov, Johannes Will, Jan Kolařı́k, Erdmann Spiecker, Patrik Schmuki
Abstract
The use of single atoms (SAs) has become a highly investigated topic in heterogeneous catalysis, electrocatalysis, and most recently also in photocatalysis. In the field of photocatalysis, Pt SAs on TiO 2 have been reported to be a highly efficient co‐catalyst in solar H 2 production. Herein, the deposition of Pt SAs and nanoparticles on titania nanosheets is investigated. In particular, the Pt species responsible for the high co‐catalytic activity using a cyanide leaching process is elucidated. It is shown that neither Pt 0 species nor the majority of Pt SAs do significantly contribute to the co‐catalytic activity of platinum on TiO 2 . In fact, >90% of the Pt of a standard deposition are non‐active and can be removed by cyanide leaching without activity loss—as a consequence, the remaining Pt SAs amount to a remarkable turnover frequency of 4.87 × 10 5 h −1 for H 2 evolution.