Single metal atom decorated photocatalysts: Progress and challenges
- PDF / 3,439,908 Bytes
- 11 Pages / 612 x 808 pts Page_size
- 21 Downloads / 157 Views
BSTRACT Photocatalysis has attracted intense attention due to its potential to solve the energy resource problem and environmental issues. The single metal atom decorated photocatalysts as a rising star become more and more popular because of the unique advantages of superior catalytic activities and ultrahigh atom utilization efficiency. The key function of single metal atom catalysts in photocatalytic reactions is boosting surface redox reactions by utilizing photogenerated charges, and has been verified by various spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. Nevertheless, the activities of the single metal atoms highly depend on the binding environment in the host photocatalyst that affect the adsorption and activation of reactants as well as the reaction energy barrier. Herein, this mini review summarizes recent progress on single metal atom decorated photocatalysts, and discusses the roles of the single metal atom catalysts in different types of host photocatalysts including organic, carbon-based and inorganic materials. The remaining challenges and future perspectives on the stability and activities of single atom catalysts in photocatalytic processes are elaborated in the end. We believe that this mini review will provide valuable overview on synthetic methods of different single atom photocatalysts for researchers towards future development of highly efficient photocatalysts.
KEYWORDS n
1
Introduction
The photon energy from sunlight is one of the most attractive energy sources due to the abundance, cleanliness and sustainability. Inspired by nature, it is an ideal and economic solution to convert solar energy and store it in chemical bonds through generation of high value-added hydrocarbon compounds. To realize this conversion route, researchers have tried many kinds of semiconductors to harvest light and implement photocatalytic processes, in which the photogenerated electrons and holes are separated and consumed for different redox reactions. To promote photocatalytic activities, catalysts are usually decorated on the surface of semiconductor photocatalysts to enhance the charge separation, boost the redox reaction rate, and improve the selectivity [1]. In particular, single atom catalysts (SACs) have attracted great research attention since 2011, when Zhang et al. reported that single Pt atoms on FeOx support showed ultrahigh catalytic activity and stability on CO oxidation reaction [2]. Comparing with traditional catalysts of clusters or nanoparticles, SACs present some compelling advantages, such as well-defined active sites, superior catalytic efficiency and high metal atom utilization rate [3–9]. In fact, SACs have been successfully used in energy conversion [10] and environmental treatment [11], including hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and other reactions [12–14]. In particular for photocatalysts, decoration of SACs can remarkably promote the surface redox reactions by regulating adsorption, desorption and activation of the reactant
Data Loading...
