Facet-engineered TiO2 drives photocatalytic activity and stability of supported noble metal clusters during H2 evolution

Metal clusters supported on TiO2 are widely used in many photocatalytic applications, including pollution control and production of solar fuels. Besides high photoactivity, stability during the photoreaction is another essential quality of high-performance photocatalysts, however systematic studies on this attribute are absent for metal clusters supported on TiO2. Here we have studied, both experimentally and with first-principles simulation methods, the stability of Pt, Pd and Au clusters prepared by ball milling on nanoshaped anatase nanoparticles preferentially exposing {001} (plates) and {101} (bipyramids) facets during the photogeneration of hydrogen. It is found that Pt/TiO2 exhibits superior stability than Pd/TiO2 and Au/TiO2, and that {001} facet-based photocatalysts always are more stable than their {101} analogous regardless of the considered metal species. The loss of stability associated with cluster sintering, which is facilitated by the transfer of photoexcited carriers from the metal species to the neighbouring Ti and O atoms, most significantly and detrimentally affects the H2-evolution photoactivity.