Efficient Photocatalytic Production of Hydrogen Peroxide from Water and Dioxygen with Bismuth Vanadate and a Cobalt(II) Chlorin Complex

Abstract

Efficient photocatalytic production of H2O2 as a promising solar fuel from H2O and O2 in water has been achieved by the combination of bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) as a durable photocatalyst with a narrow band gap for the water oxidation and a cobalt chlorin complex (CoII(Ch)) as a selective electrocatalyst for the two-electron reduction of O2 in a two-compartment photoelectrochemical cell separated by a Nafion membrane under simulated solar light illumination. The concentration of H2O2 produced in the reaction solution of the cathode cell reached as high as 61 mM, when surface-modified BiVO4 with iron­(III) oxide­(hydroxide) (FeO­(OH)) and CoII(Ch) were employed as a water oxidation catalyst in the photoanode and as an O2 reduction catalyst in the cathode, respectively. The highest solar energy conversion efficiency was determined to be 6.6% under simulated solar illumination adjusted to 0.05 sun after 1 h of photocatalytic reaction (0.89% under 1 sun illumination). The conversion of chemical energy into electric energy was conducted using H2O2 produced by photocatalytic reaction by an H2O2 fuel cell, where open-circuit potential and maximum power density were recorded as 0.79 V and 2.0 mW cm–2, respectively.

Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Peroxide Production from Water on a WO3/BiVO4 Photoanode and from O2 on an Au Cathode Without External Bias

“…[59][60][61] As discussed in the Introduction,a lmost all photoelectrochemical or photocatalytic H 2 O 2 productionsh ave generally been performedb yt he two-electron reduction of O 2 . [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] The development of ap hotoelectrochemicals ystem for producing H 2 O 2 with high current efficiency by using H 2 Oa nd O 2 as raw materials [ Figure 1(A) and (B), Eq. (8 a)] by at wo-photon process may be ap romisingt echnology from the viewpoint of practical applications.…”

“…Although little promisingt echnology for oxidativeH 2 O 2 productionf rom H 2 Oi sk nown, many studies investigating reductive H 2 O 2 production from O 2 have been reported. [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] These reactions have relied on the two-electron reduction of O 2 [Eq. (7)].…”

“…Designo faphotoelectrochemicals ystem specialized in producing only H 2 O 2 could be achieved by combining our system for oxidativeH 2 O 2 production with ac onventional system for reductiveH 2 O 2 production, as shown in Equation (8 a Eq: ð4ÞþEq: ð7Þ : [32,34,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] requires more solarl ight than H 2 O 2 production through at wo-photon process[ Eq. Eq: ð1Þþ2Eq: ð7Þ :…”

Photoelectrocatalytic Synthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide by Molecular Copper‐Porphyrin Supported on Titanium Dioxide Nanotubes

“…Two‐electron oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) of dissolved oxygen (O 2 ) in water leads to formation of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) which is a versatile, high energy product, capable of participating in numerous further redox reactions and is an active species in a plethora of biological processes . Solar‐driven H 2 O 2 formation has been proposed for chemical energy storage . However, the widely used anthraquinone process for the formation of H 2 O 2 is known to be energy intensive .…”

Fuel Production from Seawater and Fuel Cells Using Seawater

“…[121] In this case, however,s eawater deactivated the photocatalyst, owing to the instability of BiVO 4 ,w hich started to dissolve in the presence of Cl À under solari llumination. [121] The (Figure 15). [116] The energy conversion efficiency of the H 2 O 2 fuel cell was evaluated as roughly5 0% by measurement of the output energy as electrical energy vs. consumed chemical energy of H 2 O 2 ,w hich is comparable to the efficiency of an H 2 fuel cell.…”