Changeable Active Sites by Pr Doping CuSA-TiO₂ Photocatalyst for Excellent Hydrogen Production

Photocatalytic water splitting for clean hydrogen production has been a very attractive research field for decades. However, the insightful understanding of the actual active sites and their impact on catalytic performance is still ambiguous. Herein, a Pr-doped TiO₂-supported Cu single atom (SA) photocatalyst is successfully synthesized (noted as Cu/Pr-TiO₂). It is found that Pr dopants passivate the formation of oxygen vacancies, promoting the density of photogenerated electrons on the CuSAs, and optimizing the electronic structure and H^* adsorption behavior on the CuSA active sites. The photocatalytic hydrogen evolution rate of the obtained Cu/Pr-TiO₂ catalyst reaches 32.88 mmol g^-1 h^-1, 2.3 times higher than the Cu/TiO₂. Innovatively, the excellent catalytic activity and performance is attributed to the active sites change from O atoms to CuSAs after Pr doping is found. This work provides new insight for understanding the accurate roles of single atoms in photocatalytic water splitting.