Emerging cocatalysts in TiO2-based photocatalysts for light-driven catalytic hydrogen evolution: Progress and perspectives

TiO2-based photocatalysts have been maintained as the most prominent candidate for solar-driven hydrogen (H-2) evolution over the past decades. However, poor separation of generated electron-hole pairs has been considered the bottle-neck issue, restricting the TiO2 activity. Coupling a TiO2 photocatalyst to cocatalyst(s) turns out to be the ideal strategy to suppress the charge recombination and offer robust active centres, boosting the H-2 evolution performance. This review aims at providing the frontier investigations of cocatalysts-integrated TiO2 for photoinduced H-2 evolution. Four types of cutting-edge development of cocatalysts, including metal (noble metal, non-noble metal, bimetallic), metal sulfides and metal phosphides, 2D-MXenes, and dual materials-based cocatalysts, have been successfully highlighted and discussed. The systematically provided cocatalysts, which remarkably promote the charge separation and facilitate the surface reactions, bring out a roadmap to inspire the preparation of superior TiO2-based materials for H-2 evolution shortly. We expect this review could provide enriched information to tailor the TiO2 supported active sites of cocatalysts for highly photo-induced H-2 evolution.

Automated summary

TiO2-based photocatalysts have been crucial for solar-driven hydrogen production, but the poor separation of electron-hole pairs has limited their activity. Coupling with cocatalysts can effectively suppress charge recombination and enhance active centers for boosting H-2 evolution performance.