Single-atom Cu anchored catalysts for photocatalytic renewable H₂ production with a quantum efficiency of 56%

Single-atom catalysts anchoring offers a desirable pathway for efficiency maximization and cost-saving for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. However, the single-atoms loading amount is always within 0.5% in most of the reported due to the agglomeration at higher loading concentrations. In this work, the highly dispersed and large loading amount (>1 wt%) of copper single-atoms were achieved on TiO₂, exhibiting the H₂ evolution rate of 101.7 mmol g⁻¹h⁻¹ under simulated solar light irradiation, which is higher than other photocatalysts reported, in addition to the excellent stability as proved after storing 380 days. More importantly, it exhibits an apparent quantum efficiency of 56% at 365 nm, a significant breakthrough in this field. The highly dispersed and large amount of Cu single-atoms incorporation on TiO₂ enables the efficient electron transfer via Cu²⁺-Cu⁺ process. The present approach paves the way to design advanced materials for remarkable photocatalytic activity and durability.

Yumin Zhang, Jianhong Zhao, Hui Wang, Bin Xiao, Wen Zhang, Xinbo Zhao, Tianping Lv, Madasamy Thangamuthu, Jin Zhang, Yan Guo, Jiani Ma, Lina Lin, Junwang Tang, Rong Huang, Qingju Liu