Platinum-induced nanolization and electron-deficient gold in platinum@gold cocatalyst for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide production

Simultaneous optimization of the number and intensity of oxygen (O-2) adsorption on gold (Au) cocatalyst is highly required to greatly improve their interfacial hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-production activity. However, it is a great challenge to realize the above effective modulation of Au by traditional photodeposition route. In this study, a platinum (Pt)-induced selective photodeposition method was designed to simultaneously regulate the particle size and electronic structure of Au cocatalyst for boosting the photocatalytic H2O2-production activity of bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) via the selective deposition of Pt@Au core-shell cocatalyst. The photocatalytic results indicate that the as-prepared BiVO4/Pt-0.1@Au photocatalyst achieves a considerable H2O2-production activity with a rate of 2752.13 mu mol L-1 (AQE = 13.76 %), which is obviously higher than that of BiVO4/Pt (137.63 mu mol L-1) and BiVO4/Au (475.33 mu mol L-1). It was found that the introduction of Pt successfully induced the formation of Au nanoparticles for enhancing the number of O-2 adsorption. Meanwhile, the spontaneous transfer of free electrons of Au to Pt induces the generation of electron-deficient Au delta+ sites, which spontaneously enhances the O-2-adsorption intensity for facilitating the 2-electron oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), resulting in efficient H2O2 production. The present strategy may be useful for more comprehensively regulating the intensity and number of O-2 adsorption on cocatalysts to facilitate artificial photosynthesis.