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Title: Single and dual metal atom catalysts for enhanced singlet oxygen generation and oxygen reduction reaction

Journal Article · · Journal of Materials Chemistry. A
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/d2ta08240c· OSTI ID:2318652
 [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4];  [2]; ORCiD logo [5];  [1]; ORCiD logo [5];  [1]; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [7]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) (Hong Kong)
  2. Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ. (Hong Kong)
  3. China Univ. of Petroleum, Qingdao (China)
  4. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
  5. ULVAC-PHI, Inc., Chigasaki (Japan)
  6. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) (Hong Kong); California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  7. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)

We demonstrate rational design of graphene-supported single and dual metal atom catalysts (SACs and DACs) for photocatalytic applications, such as singlet oxygen (1O2) sensitization and H2O2 production. Here we combine density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) calculations with experimental verifications. We found a synergistic effect between triplet sensitization and triplet–triplet (Dexter) energy transfer; both play a role in the photocatalytic activity through the volcano plot of 3d transition metal SACs. More specifically, FeN4-SAC exhibits a low ISC energy gap (ΔEISC) of 0.039 eV, compared with 0.108 eV for FeNiN8-DACs, both possessing a high Bader charge transfer of 0.366 e- and 0.405 e-, respectively. Guided by these computational results, we synthesized a series of SACs and a DAC and confirmed their structures with scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) along with the X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS). We then confirm their band structures with low-energy inverse photoemission spectroscopy (LEIPS) and UV-vis-NIR. Subsequently, we synthesized the catalysts for the photooxygenation of anthracene and two-electron oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) to measure their photocatalytic activity. We found that H2O2 production through the two-electron ORR competes with the 1O2 generation through Dexter energy transfer. FeN4-SAC demonstrates a high photooxygenation conversion of 86% and a high 1O2 quantum yield of 1.04, obtained from electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy, with low H2O2 production. In contrast, NiN4-SAC exhibits a low 1O2 generation and a high H2O2 production mainly because of the high Gibbs free energy of the OOH* intermediate. In conclusion, this work proposes an effective DFT-guided strategy for designing SACs and DACs for various photocatalytic applications.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF); Institute for Energy Research (IER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; SC0021266; HT-JD-CXY-201907
OSTI ID:
2318652
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1959371
Journal Information:
Journal of Materials Chemistry. A, Vol. 11, Issue 14; ISSN 2050-7488
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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