The ability to prepare ultrafine metal cluster (UMC) in supported catalysts, which exhibit extraordinary physical and chemical properties offers exciting opportunities to tailoring catalytic performance. However, the fabrication of singly-dispersed metal cluster catalysts that are both catalytic stable and active remains challenging. In this work, ultrafine Cu clusters has been spatially immobilized within the MOF derived photocatalyst matrix to realize a unitary photocatalyst with high density and stable active sites for charge separation and photothermal co-functions. Furthermore, the embedded Cu is capable of overcoming challenges related to porous structure collapse, disparate material interfaces and incompatibility between light absorption and charge transfer processes. Resultantly, the photocatalyst (m-TiO/Cu) exhibits a high and stable H generation rate of 17.8 mmolgh that is ∼69 times higher compared to the control. In essence, this study presents an efficient approach to immobilize ultrafine metal active sites for the development of high-performance heterogeneous catalysts for energy applications.

中文翻译：

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MOF 衍生金属氧化物中的局域超细 Cu 簇，用于集体光化学和光热 H2 生成

在负载型催化剂中制备超细金属簇（UMC）的能力具有非凡的物理和化学性质，为定制催化性能提供了令人兴奋的机会。然而，制备既具有催化稳定性又具有活性的单分散金属簇催化剂仍然具有挑战性。在这项工作中，超细铜簇被空间固定在 MOF 衍生的光催化剂基质内，以实现具有高密度和稳定活性位点的单一光催化剂，用于电荷分离和光热协同功能。此外，嵌入的铜能够克服与多孔结构塌陷、不同材料界面以及光吸收和电荷转移过程之间的不兼容相关的挑战。结果，光催化剂（m-TiO/Cu）表现出17.8 mmolgh的高且稳定的H生成率，比对照高约69倍。本质上，这项研究提出了一种固定超细金属活性位点的有效方法，用于开发能源应用的高性能多相催化剂。