Superexchange-induced Pt-O-Ti(3+) site on single photocatalyst for efficient H(2) production with organics degradation in wastewater

Efficient photocatalytic H(2) production from wastewater instead of pure water is a dual solution to the environmental and energy crisis, but due to the rapid recombination of photoinduced charge in the photocatalyst and inevitable electron depletion caused by organic pollutants, a significant challenge of dual-functional photocatalysis (simultaneous oxidative and reductive reactions) in single catalyst is designing spatial separation path for photogenerated charges at atomic level. Here, we designed a Pt-doped BaTiO(3) single catalyst with oxygen vacancies (BTPO(v)) that features Pt-O-Ti(3+) short charge separation site, which enables excellent H(2) production performance (1519 μmol·g(−1)·h(−1)) while oxidizing moxifloxacin (k = 0.048 min(−1)), almost 43 and 98 times than that of pristine BaTiO(3) (35 μmol·g(−1)·h(−1) and k = 0.00049 min(−1)). The efficient charge separation path is demonstrated that the oxygen vacancies extract photoinduced charge from photocatalyst to catalytic surface, and the adjacent Ti(3+) defects allow rapid migration of electrons to Pt atoms through the superexchange effect for H(*) adsorption and reduction, while the holes will be confined in Ti(3+) defects for oxidation of moxifloxacin. Impressively, the BTPO(v) shows an exceptional atomic economy and potential for practical applications, a best H(2) production TOF (370.4 h(−1)) among the recent reported dual-functional photocatalysts and exhibiting excellent H(2) production activity in multiple types of wastewaters.