Interfacial engineering boosting charge extraction for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

In heterostructure photocatalyst, metal–support interaction plays a key role in determining the photocatalytic reaction, which is rarely studied due to its complicated mechanism involving interfacial bonding, internal electric field, and charge transfer etc. Here we report an interfacial engineering to promote the photocatalytic hydrogen evolution of the model photocatalyst Pt/TiO2. A stable oxidized Cu+ layer was inserted as an interlayer between Pt nanoparticles and TiO2 support, which boosts the efficiency of photoinduced charge extraction and regulates the surface charge state of the photocatalyst. The synthesized photocatalyst Pt/Cu/TiO2 exhibits highly efficient hydrogen evolution of 1 L g−1h−1, which is 63% higher than the photocatalyst Pt/TiO2. This charge extraction strategy is also evidenced on photocatalysts Pt/(Rh, Co or Ni)/TiO2. Our findings not only provide insight into interfacial interaction in photocatalyst, but also offer effective guidelines for the design and fabrication of high-performance photocatalysts.