Regulation the reactive oxygen species on conjugated polymers for highly efficient photocatalysis

Abstract

The regulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in photocatalytic processes remains insufficiently explored. Herein, three triazine-based conjugated polymers were designed to regulate ROS by tuning structures. Strong superoxide radical was generated together with hydrogen peroxide through the electron transfer from the photocatalysts to oxygen, when electron donor-acceptor (D-A) structures were constructed in the photocatalysts. By sharp contrast, singlet O2 that was generated via energy transfer was the dominant ROS on the photocatalyst with a symmetric structure. It was demonstrated that the separation of excitons in the D-A photocatalysts was much more efficient. By using the most efficient D-A photocatalyst, phenol was degraded completely within 60 min, and 1351 μmol·h−1·g−1 of hydrogen peroxide was generated simultaneously. The photodegradation performance and the photosynthesis performance both ranked among the highest ones. The regulation of ROS by tuning the structures of photocatalysts opens new prospects for the design of efficient photocatalysts at the molecular level.