Anatase TiO
2
is an intensely investigated photocatalytic
material due to its abundance and chemical stability. However, it
suffers from weak light harvesting and low photocatalytic efficiency.
Experiments show that light absorption and photocatalytic properties
can be enhanced simultaneously by TiO
2
doping with well-dispersed
Cu atoms, forming a single-atom catalyst (Cu/TiO
2
) that
can be used for solar water splitting and other applications. By performing
ab initio nonadiabatic molecular dynamics simulations, we demonstrate
that Cu/TiO
2
is inactive before light irradiation due to
rapid electron–hole recombination via both shallow and deep
traps. Surprisingly, the shallow trap is more detrimental to the Cu/TiO
2
performance than the deep trap because it couples better
to free carriers. After light irradiation, leading to electron transfer
and Cu/TiO
2
protonation, the shallow trap is eliminated,
and a local distortion around the Cu atom stabilizes the deep trap
state on the Cu d-orbital, decoupling it from free charges and giving
rise to high photocatalytic hydrogen generation activity. We further
demonstrate that the photocatalytic performance of Cu/TiO
2
can be enhanced by spin selection, achievable experimentally via
optical intersite spin transfer or chiral semiconductor coating. Both
H adsorption and spin selection enhance charge carrier lifetimes by
an order of magnitude. The spin selection mechanism does not require
formation of the H species, which necessitates concurrent sources
of electrons and protons and which is intrinsically unstable because
water splitting involves frequent proton shuffling. Our results rationalize
the experimental observations at the atomistic level, provide mechanistic
insights into operation of single atom photocatalysis, and demonstrate
that spin selection can be used to develop advanced and efficient
systems for solar energy conversion.