Catalytic Hydrogen Production by Janus CuAg Nanostructures

Abstract Janus nanostructures comprising intimate interfaces can integrate distinct building blocks into a single unit and generate new synergetic effects and desirable functionality through the interfaces. Herein, we report a wet‐chemistry approach mediated by n‐butylamine to directly create heterogeneous CuAg nanoparticles (NPs). Such newly created heterostructures with unique interfaces between the Cu and Ag domains exhibit superior catalytic performance for the water‐gas shift (WGS) reaction to produce hydrogen (H₂). By optimizing the composition of the heterogeneous CuAg NPs, the supports, as well as the reaction parameters, the CuAg NPs/ZnO can deliver a TOF value of 673.5 h⁻¹ and a 198.1 μmol yield of H₂, significantly outperforming Cu NPs, Ag NPs, mixed Cu/Ag NPs, as well as CuAg NPs without an interface. XPS analysis indicates that the excellent performance is attributed to a unique interface effect, which endows the optimized catalyst with an enhanced antioxidant ability and thus large ratio of metallic Cu. The catalyst also shows outstanding durability with a largely maintained interface and activity after nine runs.