High-concentration hydrogen peroxide production by solar interfacial catalysis

Abstract

Solar-driven catalytic synthesis of H2O2 is an ideal alternative to the anthraquinone method, but current photocatalysts still suffer from low activity and inefficient solar energy utilization. Here we presented an economic and efficient solar interfacial catalysis system (SICS) that incorporated photothermal–photocatalytic materials into commercial sponge to simultaneously generate the required heat and carriers for H2O2 production. We demonstrated its superiority over conventional particulate photocatalysis (PC) in photocatalytic H2O2 production. The SICS, located at the air–water interface, remarkably improve the activities of photocatalysts by efficient utilization of solar-converted heat. The produced H2O2 from SICS was reserved in the sponge and resulted in an ultrahigh concentration of 46 mM for per gram catalyst after 1 h solar irradiation. As thus, our application experiments confirmed that the SICS presented great advantages in organic pollutant (e.g. phenol and tetracycline) degradation compared with conventional PC. This work paves a new way for the industrialization of solar-driven catalysis.