摘要：SummaryDispersing metal nanoclusters on the oxide supports is attracting close attention in heterogeneous catalysis, but great challenges still lie in controlling the size and dispersion of nanoclusters due to the inevitable agglomeration. Here, we propose a sequential photochemical deposition strategy named “first store, and then release” to uniformly fabricate the size-controlling noble metal nanoclusters on semiconductor oxides. Using the typical semiconductor TiO2, the photoexcited electrons can be first stored as reduced species (e.g. Ti3+) under irradiation and the Ti3+species can optimize both the nucleation and growth processes in dark reaction, resulting in a uniform dispersing of various noble metals (Au, Pt, Ag etc.) with size diameters of ∼1 nm. The nanoclusters catalysts exhibited superior performance in catalytic oxidation of HCHO compared with that of nanoparticles. This work brings a new and useful strategy to construct size-controlling noble metals on the oxide supports for heterogeneous catalysis and the related fields.Graphical abstractDisplay OmittedHighlights•Metal nanoclusters were deposited on semiconductors via sequential photodeposition•Ti3+species store the photoelectrons and optimize the nucleation and growth processes•The catalysts exhibit superior performance in catalytic oxidation of HCHOCatalysis; Optical materials; Materials science; Materials chemistry
