Introducing Hydrogen-Bonding Microenvironment in Close Proximity to Single-Atom Sites for Boosting Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Inspired by enzymatic catalysis, it is crucial to construct hydrogen-bonding-rich microenvironment around catalytic sites; unfortunately, its precise construction and understanding how the distance between such microenvironment and catalytic sites affects the catalysis remain significantly challenging. In this work, a series of metal−organic framework (MOF)-based single-atom Ru1 catalysts, namely, Ru1/UiO-67-X (X = -H, -m-(NH2)2, -o-(NH2)2), have been synthesized, where the distance between the hydrogen-bonding microenvironment and Ru1 sites is modulated by altering the location of amino groups. The −NH2 group can form hydrogen bonds with H2O, constituting a unique microenvironment that causes an increased water concentration around the Ru1 sites. Remarkably, Ru1/UiO-67-o-(NH2)2 displays a superior photocatalytic hydrogen production rate, ∼4.6 and ∼146.6 times of Ru1/UiO-67-m-(NH2)2 and Ru1/UiO-67, respectively. Both experimental and computational results suggest that the close proximity of amino groups to the Ru1 sites in Ru1/UiO-67-o-(NH2)2 improves charge transfer and H2O dissociation, accounting for the promoted photocatalytic hydrogen production.