Sustainable photocatalytic H2O2 production in pure water from biomass carbon dots decorated resorcinol–formaldehyde resin

Abstract

Photocatalytic production of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is a promising green strategy to replace conventional industrial production methods. Herein, ginkgo biloba-derived biomass carbon dots (BCDs) were successfully loaded on the surface of resorcinol–formaldehyde (RF) resin by a simple hydrothermal method to form a BCDs/RF composite photocatalyst, which enabled efficient and sustainable photocatalytic H₂O₂ production in pure water without the sacrificial agents and bubbling O₂. The optimal H₂O₂ yield of the BCDs/RF-5 composite catalyst was 1430.31 μmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹ with the solar energy chemical conversion (SCC) efficiency was up to 1.1 %, which was 1.16 times higher than that of pure RF (1222.59 μmol h⁻¹ g⁻¹). A series of testing results illustrate that the BCDs in the BCDs/RF composite not only acted as electron acceptors to enhance the photo-generated charge separation efficiency of RF resin, but also effectively inhibited the decomposition of H₂O₂, and on the other hand improved the yield of photocatalytic H₂O₂ production. This study provides a new strategy for the design and synthesis of RF-based photocatalysts and expands the application of biomass materials in photocatalytic generation of H₂O₂.