Platinum Species on Oxygen Vacancy-Rich Titania for Efficient Basic Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution.

Oxygen vacancy-rich titania is a promising support for enhancing the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). This work innovatively loaded Pt nanoparticles on oxygen vacancy-rich TiO (Pt/Vo-TiO) by using a photocatalytic device. The synthesis conditions are mild, do not require high temperatures and strong reducing agents, and can avoid the accumulation of platinum species. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray absorption spectrometry (XAS) verified the synergistic effect of Pt species and oxygen vacancies on the progress of the reaction kinetics, where the Pt particles exposed by the synthesis functioned as reaction sites in the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Based on this, Pt/Vo-TiO exhibits excellent electrocatalytic performance with an overpotential of only 56 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm and a Tafel slope of only 73.5 mV dec. This work provides a new strategy for designing highly efficient HER catalysts.