Improving the CO<sub>2</sub> Hydrogenation Activity of Photocatalysts via the Synergy between Surface Frustrated Lewis Pairs and the CuPt Alloy
Xianqiang Gao, Lulu Cao, Ying Chang, Zhimin Yuan, Shuxin Zhang, Shu‐Jun Liu, Mengting Zhang, Hai Fan, Zaiyong Jiang
Abstract
Recently, the surface frustrated Lewis pairs (SFLP) have attracted more and more attention in the field of CO 2 hydrogenation. The main research studies have focused on a single construction of SFLP; however, the exploration of the synergy between SFLP and other excellent techniques has been barely reported. In this work, a common photocatalyst, TiO 2, was chosen as the research object and amorphous TiO 2– x (OH) y and CuPt alloy were constructed on its surface to investigate the synergy between SFLP and the metal cocatalyst technique. The amorphous TiO 2– x (OH) y could form effective SFLP to increase CO 2 activation, and the CuPt alloy was beneficial for H 2 dissociation to boost the formation of protonated/hydridic H. The synergy resulted in CuPt/TiO 2– x (OH) y /TiO 2 exhibiting significantly increased activity for the reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction compared to those of TiO 2– x (OH) y /TiO 2, CuPt/TiO 2, and pristine TiO 2 . This work highlights an important research direction for the SFLP application in the field of CO 2 hydrogenation.