Covalent Organic Frameworks Enable Sustainable Solar to Hydrogen Peroxide
Deming Tan, Rong Zhuang, Ruichong Chen, Miaohan Ban, Wei Feng, Fei Xu, Xiong Chen, Qingyuan Wang
Abstract
Abstract As a chemical product with rapidly expanding demand in the field of modern energy and environmental applications, hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) has garnered widespread attention. However, the existing industrial production of H 2 O 2 is plagued by high energy consumption, harmful waste emission, and severe safety issues, making it difficult to satisfy the environmental/economic production concept. Artificial photosynthesis offers a viable strategy for green and sustainable H 2 O 2 production since it uses sunlight as an energy source to initiate the reaction of oxygen and water to produce H 2 O 2 . Among various photocatalysts, covalent organic frameworks (COFs), featuring highly ordered skeletons and well‐defined active sites, have emerged as promising photocatalysts for H 2 O 2 production. This review presents the nascent and burgeoning area of photocatalytic H 2 O 2 production based on COFs. First, a brief overview of photocatalytic technology is provided, followed by a detailed introduction to the principles and evaluation of the photocatalytic H 2 O 2 generation. Subsequently, the latest research progress on the judicious design of COFs for H 2 O 2 photosynthesis is expounded, with a particular emphasis on manipulating the electronic structures and redox active sites. Finally, an outlook on the challenges and future opportunities is proposed, in the hope of stimulating further explorations of novel molecular‐designed COFs for sustainable photosynthesis.