Synergetic promotional effect of oxygen vacancy-rich ultrathin TiO2 and photochemical induced highly dispersed Pt for photoreduction of CO2 with H2O

The ultrathin TiO 2 nanosheets (TiO 2 -U) with abundant defects were successfully fabricated as substrates to support well-dispersed Pt nanoparticles with low metal loading by photochemical route (P), with impregnated Pt/TiO 2 -U, Pt/TiO 2 -bulk and photoreduced Pt/TiO 2 -bulk as control samples, to focus on studying the inductive effect of oxygen vacancy-rich ultrathin TiO 2 on highly dispersed Pt nanoparticles, and their synergetic promotional effect for CO 2 photoreduction. As expected, P-Pt/TiO 2 -U exhibited excellent photocatalytic efficiency for the selective conversion of CO 2 into CH 4 and CO. The ultrathin TiO 2 nanosheets with a large number of low coordinative sites and ultralarge surface area promoted the rate of electron-transfer. The ultrafine Pt nanoparticles induced by photochemical strategy facilitated the efficient separation of electron–hole pairs. Furthermore, the synergy of metal and support improved the adsorption ability of CO 2 . These three factors were considered to drive jointly the enhancement of catalytic performance in this system. This work offers deep insights for the design of highly efficient catalysts with coordinatively unsaturated sites for CO 2 photoconversion in the presence of H 2 O.