Photoinduced Strong Metal-Support Interaction for Enhanced Catalysis

Hao Chen; Zhenzhen Yang; Xiang Wang; Felipe Polo-Garzon; Phillip W Halstenberg; Tao Wang; Xian Suo; Shi-Ze Yang; Harry M Meyer 3rd; Zili Wu; Sheng Dai

doi:10.1021/jacs.0c12817

Photoinduced Strong Metal-Support Interaction for Enhanced Catalysis

J Am Chem Soc. 2021 Jun 16;143(23):8521-8526. doi: 10.1021/jacs.0c12817. Epub 2021 Jun 3.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, United States.
² Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States.
³ Eyring Materials Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, United States.

PMID: 34081447
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c12817

Abstract

Strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) construction is a pivotal strategy to afford thermally robust nanocatalysts in industrial catalysis, but thermally induced reactions (>300 °C) in specific gaseous atmospheres are generally required in traditional procedures. In this work, a photochemistry-driven methodology was demonstrated for SMSI construction under ambient conditions. Encapsulation of Pd nanoparticles with a TiO_x overlayer, the presence of Ti³⁺ species, and suppression of CO adsorption were achieved upon UV irradiation. The key lies in the generation of separated photoinduced reductive electrons (e^-) and oxidative holes (h⁺), which subsequently trigger the formation of Ti³⁺ species/oxygen vacancies (O_v) and then interfacial Pd-O_v-Ti³⁺ sites, affording a Pd/TiO₂ SMSI with enhanced catalytic hydrogenation efficiency. The as-constructed SMSI layer was reversible, and the photodriven procedure could be extended to Pd/ZnO and Pt/TiO₂.