Photocatalytic hydrogen evolution over Pt–Pd dual atom sites anchored on TiO2 nanosheets

Photocatalytic hydrogen production from water is a clean and sustainable way of energy regeneration. Single-atom catalysts (SACs) have received increasing attention in the field of photocatalysis due to their high catalytic activity, selectivity, stability, and 100% atomic utilization. In this work, we utilized TiO2 with oxygen vacancy (Vo-TiO2) to anchor atomically dispersed Pt and Pd, developing a Vo-TiO2-supported dual atomic catalyst (Pt–Pd SAs/Vo-TiO2). Experiments show the metal atomic sites are stabilized by the oxygen vacancy of TiO2, and the Ti–Pt–Ti structure and the Ti–Pd–Ti structure are constructed. The result shows that the hydrogen production rate of Pt–Pd SAs/Vo-TiO2 is 4 times higher than that of Pt–Pd NPs/TiO2, and its hydrogen production rate is as high as 4241.4 μmol h−1 gcat.−1, which greatly reduces catalyst cost and makes photocatalytic water hydrogen production more economical and sustainable. This work provides a new idea for the development of dual single-atom catalysts for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen production.