Ultrafast Charge Transfer on Ru-Cu Atomic Units for Enhanced Photocatalytic H2O2 Production

Abstract

Photosensitizer-assisted photocatalytic systems offer a solution to overcome the limitations of inherent light harvesting capabilities in catalysts. However, achieving efficient charge transfer between the dissociative photosensitizer and catalyst poses a significant challenge. Incorporating photosensitive components into reactive centers to establish well-defined charge transfer channels is expected to effectively address this issue. Herein, the electrostatic-driven self-assembly method is utilized to integrate photosensitizers into metal–organic frameworks, constructing atomically Ru-Cu bi-functional units to promote efficient local electron migration. Within this newly constructed system, the [Ru(bpy)₂]²⁺ component and Cu site serve as photosensitive and catalytic active centers for photocarrier generation and H₂O₂ production, respectively, and their integration significantly reduces the barriers to charge transfer. Ultrafast spectroscopy and in situ characterization unveil accelerated directional charge transfer over Ru-Cu units, presenting orders of magnitude improvement over dissociative photosensitizer systems. As a result, a 37.2-fold enhancement of the H₂O₂ generation rate (570.9 µmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹) over that of dissociative photosensitizer system (15.3 µmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹) is achieved. This work presents a promising strategy for integrating atomic-scale photosensitive and catalytic active centers to achieve ultrafast photocarrier transfer and enhanced photocatalytic performance.