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Research Article | Online first | Published: 19 April 2024

In-situ study of the hydrogen peroxide photoproduction in seawater on carbon dot-based metal-free catalyst under operation condition

Show Author's Information Jiaxuan Wang1,  Jiacheng Li1,  Zenan Li1,  Jie Wu1,  Honglin Si1,  Yangbo Wu2,  Zhiyong Guo3,  Xuepeng Wang2,  Fan Liao1( ),  Hui Huang1( ),  Mingwang Shao1( ),  Yang Liu1( ),  Zhenhui Kang1,4( )
Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, School of Material Science and Chemical Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Macao Institute of Materials Science and Engineering (MIMSE), MUST-SUDA Joint Research Center for Advanced Functional Materials, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa 999078, Macao, China
Keywords:
photocatalysis, carbon dots, hydrogen peroxide, transient potential scanning, operation condition, in-situ study
Topics:
Catalytic
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Wang J, Li J, Li Z, et al. In-situ study of the hydrogen peroxide photoproduction in seawater on carbon dot-based metal-free catalyst under operation condition. Nano Research, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-024-6623-4
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) photoproduction in seawater with metal-free photocatalysts derived from biomass materials is a green, sustainable, and ultra environmentally friendly way. However, most photocatalysts are always corroded or poisoned in seawater, resulting in a significantly reduced catalytic performance. Here, we report the metal-free photocatalysts (RUT-1 to RUT-5) with in-situ generated carbon dots (CDs) from biomass materials (Rutin) by a simple microwave-assisted pyrolysis method. Under visible light (λ ≥ 420 nm, 81.6 mW/cm2), the optimized catalyst of RUT-4 is stable and can achieve a high H2O2 yield of 330.36 μmol/L in seawater, 1.78 times higher than that in normal water. New transient potential scanning (TPS) tests are developed and operated to in-situ study the H2O2 photoproduction of RUT-4 under operation condition. RUT-4 has strong oxygen (O2) absorption capacity, and the O2 reduction rate in seawater is higher than that in water. Metal cations in seawater further promote the photo-charge separation and facilitate the photo-reduction reaction. For RUT-4, the conduction band level under operating conditions only satisfies the requirement of O2 reduction but not for hydrogen (H2) evolution. This work provides new insights for the in-situ study of photocatalyst under operation condition, and gives a green and sustainable path for the H2O2 photoproduction with metal-free catalysts in seawater.


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Electronic supplementary material
About this article

In-situ study of the hydrogen peroxide photoproduction in seawater on carbon dot-based metal-free catalyst under operation condition

Show Author's information Jiaxuan Wang1, Jiacheng Li1, Zenan Li1, Jie Wu1, Honglin Si1, Yangbo Wu2, Zhiyong Guo3, Xuepeng Wang2, Fan Liao1( ), Hui Huang1( ), Mingwang Shao1( ), Yang Liu1( ), Zhenhui Kang1,4( )
Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
State Key Laboratory for Managing Biotic and Chemical Threats to the Quality and Safety of Agro-products, School of Material Science and Chemical Engineering, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Macao Institute of Materials Science and Engineering (MIMSE), MUST-SUDA Joint Research Center for Advanced Functional Materials, Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa 999078, Macao, China

Abstract

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) photoproduction in seawater with metal-free photocatalysts derived from biomass materials is a green, sustainable, and ultra environmentally friendly way. However, most photocatalysts are always corroded or poisoned in seawater, resulting in a significantly reduced catalytic performance. Here, we report the metal-free photocatalysts (RUT-1 to RUT-5) with in-situ generated carbon dots (CDs) from biomass materials (Rutin) by a simple microwave-assisted pyrolysis method. Under visible light (λ ≥ 420 nm, 81.6 mW/cm2), the optimized catalyst of RUT-4 is stable and can achieve a high H2O2 yield of 330.36 μmol/L in seawater, 1.78 times higher than that in normal water. New transient potential scanning (TPS) tests are developed and operated to in-situ study the H2O2 photoproduction of RUT-4 under operation condition. RUT-4 has strong oxygen (O2) absorption capacity, and the O2 reduction rate in seawater is higher than that in water. Metal cations in seawater further promote the photo-charge separation and facilitate the photo-reduction reaction. For RUT-4, the conduction band level under operating conditions only satisfies the requirement of O2 reduction but not for hydrogen (H2) evolution. This work provides new insights for the in-situ study of photocatalyst under operation condition, and gives a green and sustainable path for the H2O2 photoproduction with metal-free catalysts in seawater.

Keywords: photocatalysis, carbon dots, hydrogen peroxide, transient potential scanning, operation condition, in-situ study

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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 01 February 2024
Revised: 23 February 2024
Accepted: 08 March 2024
Published: 19 April 2024

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press 2024

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20220028), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Nos. 2020YFA0406104 and2020YFA0406101), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 52272043, 52271223, 52202107, and 52201269), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Nos. BK20210735 and 21KJB430043), the Science and Technology Development Fund, Macau SAR (No. 0009/2022/ITP), Shenzhen Science and Technology Plan Project (Collaborative Innovation Special Project, SGDX20220530111203019), Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, the 111 Project, and Suzhou Key Laboratory of Functional Nano and Soft Materials.

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