Metal organic framework-assisted copper-modified titania (Cu/TiO) with abundant exposed active sites and highly accessible pore channels for an enhanced photo-generation of hydrogen.

Metal-doping is a common strategy for establishing active sites on photocatalyst, but appropriately exposing them for maximized atomic utilization remains a great challenge in photocatalytic research. Herein, we propose a metal organic framework (MOF)-assisted approach to synthesis copper-modified titania (Cu-TiO/Cu) photocatalyst with homogenously distributed and highly accessible active sites in its matrix. Significantly, an MOF precursor, namely NH-MIL-125, with co-chelation of titania (Ti) and copper (Cu) was subjected to mild calcination, subsequently results in Cu-modified TiO with highly accessible channels to its inner surface. These channels provide not only a large reactive surface (>400 m g); they also enable facile modifying route for the pre-deposited Cu in prior to photoreaction. Specifically, NH treatment was applied to partially reduce deposited Cu ions (Cu and Cu) into Cu nanoparticles, where their interplays realize improved optical properties and charge separation during photoreactions. Furthermore, the NH-induced Cu nanoparticles could also serve as the adsorptive site for H, thereby enabling 5629 μmol h g H generation over the optimum photocatalyst of Cu/TiO/Cu. Such performance is associated to 35.44 and 1.71-fold improvements compared to pure TiO (Cu/TiO) and untreated Cu-ion modified TiO (Cu/TiO), respectively. This work offers a new synthetic strategy for obtaining photocatalyst with evenly distributed and highly accessible active sites, thus improving the commensurability of photocatalytic H generation from the industrial perspective.