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 (H 2 O 2 )-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 H 2 O 2 -production activity of bismuth vanadate (BiVO 4 ) via the selective deposition of Pt@Au core–shell cocatalyst. The photocatalytic results indicate that the as-prepared BiVO 4 /Pt 0.1 @Au photocatalyst achieves a considerable H 2 O 2 -production activity with a rate of 2752.13 μmol L −1 (AQE = 13.76 %), which is obviously higher than that of BiVO 4 /Pt (137.63 μmol L −1 ) and BiVO 4 /Au (475.33 μmol 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 δ+ sites, which spontaneously enhances the O 2 -adsorption intensity for facilitating the 2-electron oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), resulting in efficient H 2 O 2 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.