Decorating Ti-MOF with noble metal as highly efficient photocatalysts: Fine-tuning the valence band to co-production of 2,5-diformylfuran and H2

Photocatalytic H2 evolution and selective oxidation of Hydroxymethylfurfura (HMF) occur in synergy, which improves the utilization of photogenerated carriers. In this paper, Ti-MOFs with noble metal (NM) co-doping was used in the H2 evolution and HMF oxidation to prepare a highly efficient photocatalyst. Under visible light irradiation, the formation rate of H2 and 2,5-dicarbonylfuran (DFF) was significantly increased by 4.03 times and 4.65 times compared with the original Ti-MOF. In this process, the separation of photoexcited electrons (e−) and holes (h+) is promoted and both e− and h+ are effectively utilized. From the density functional theory (DFT) calculations and XPS spectra results, it can be seen that the e− generated by the photoexcitation of Ti-MOF will transfer spontaneously to Pt, promoting the utilization of e−. The catalysts are effect for different biomass substrates as well. This work improves separation of the photo-induced carriers and enhances the oxidation ability by adjusting the valence band of metal loading, providing a new research direction for the evolution H2 in the conversion of HMF to DFF.