One-Dimensional Single-Crystal Mesoporous TiO Supported CuWO Clusters as Photocatalytic Cascade Nanoreactor for Boosting Reduction of CO to CH.

Constructing nanoreactors with multiple active sites in well-defined crystalline mesoporous frameworks is an effective strategy for tailoring photocatalysts to address the challenging of CO reduction. Herein, one-dimensional (1-D) mesoporous single-crystal TiO nanorod (MS-TiO-NRs, ≈110 nm in length, high surface area of 117 m g, and uniform mesopores of ≈7.0 nm) based nanoreactors are prepared via a droplet interface directed-assembly strategy under mild condition. By regulating the interfacial energy, the 1-D mesoporous single-crystal TiO can be further tuned to polycrystalline fan- and flower-like morphologies with different oxygen vacancies (O). The integration of single-crystal nature and mesopores with exposed oxygen vacancies make the rod-like TiO nanoreactors exhibit a high-photocatalytic CO reduction selectivity to CO (95.1%). Furthermore, photocatalytic cascade nanoreactors by in situ incorporation of CuWO (W-Cu) clusters onto MS-TiO-NRs via O are designed and synthesized, which improved the CO adsorption capacity and achieved two-step CO-CO-CH photoreduction. The second step CO-to-CH reaction induced by W-Cu sites ensures a high generation rate of CH (420.4 µmol g h), along with an enhanced CH selectivity (≈94.3% electron selectivity). This research provides a platform for the design of mesoporous single-crystal materials, which potentially extends to a range of functional ceramics and semiconductors for various applications.