Developing photocatalysts is essential for converting solar energy into chemical fuels. Herein, we report the discovery and synthesis of praseodymium oxyhide (PrOBr), a two-dimensional (2D) rare-earth material, as an efficient photocatalyst. By performing high-throughput screening over popular computational 2D materials databases, we have identified 2D PrOBr as a promising photocatalyst with potentially good stability and activity. 2D PrOBr was successfully synthesized via the exfoliation of bulk PrOBr powders. The intrinsic photocatalytic activities of this 2D material were further validated. The measured hydrogen evolution rate of water splitting and the methane production rate of carbon dioxide reduction are 60.28 μmol·h^–1·g^–1 and 0.862 μmol·h^–1·g^–1, which are about 3–6 times and 7 times higher than that of the typical 2D photocatalysts (e.g., 2D C₃N₄ and BiOCl), respectively.

中文翻译：

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二维 ProOBr 光催化剂的计算辅助发现与合成

开发光催化剂对于将太阳能转化为化学燃料至关重要。在此，我们报告了作为高效光催化剂的二维 (2D) 稀土材料镨 (PrOBr) 的发现和合成。通过对流行的计算二维材料数据库进行高通量筛选，我们将 2D ProOBr 确定为具有潜在良好稳定性和活性的有前途的光催化剂。通过块状 ProOBr 粉末的剥离成功地合成了 2D ProOBr。进一步验证了这种二维材料的内在光催化活性。实测水分解析氢速率和二氧化碳还原产甲烷速率分别为 60.28 μmol·h ^-1 ·g ^-1和 0.862 μmol·h ^-1 ·g^–1，分别比典型的二维光催化剂（例如，2D C ₃ N ₄和BiOCl）高约3-6倍和7倍。