Photocatalytic Evolution of Hydrogen Peroxide: A Minireview

Nikolaos Karamoschos and Dimitrios Tasis ()
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Nikolaos Karamoschos: Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece
Dimitrios Tasis: Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 17, 1-21

Abstract: Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) has demonstrated applicability in a wide range of applications, spanning from a bleaching agent in the pulp industry, environmental remediation, and fuel cell technology. Industrial scale synthesis, either by the anthraquinone method or catalytic oxidation of hydrogen gas, has serious drawbacks which are related with energy demanding and multi-step processes. An alternative green strategy involves the photocatalytic synthesis of H 2 O 2 . All that is needed is the renewable energy of the sun, a semiconducting species absorbing in the visible region, water, and oxygen. In this minireview, we describe the evolution of research milestones that have been achieved within the recent decades regarding the development of functional photocatalytic systems. In the early studies, back in the 1980’s, TiO 2 -based systems were mostly investigated. However, due to the large band gap of titania (3.2 eV), alternative semiconductors were studied which strongly absorb in the visible region. Thus, a variety of semiconductor families have been investigated, such as doped titania systems, other metal oxides, metal sulfides, organic semiconductors, metal-organic frameworks, carbon nitride systems, etc. In parallel, the development of functional dopants onto the surface of the main semiconductor has lead to both the inhibition of electron-hole recombination and H 2 O 2 degradation. The current minireview collectively provides the studies of the higher H 2 O 2 production rates and offer some suggestions for the near future.

Keywords: photocatalysis; hydrogen peroxide; semiconductor; oxygen reduction; water oxidation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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