Issue 28, 2025

Hydrogen-bond-regulated hierarchical porous organic polymers for enhanced photocatalytic H2O2 production

Abstract

Porous Organic Polymers (POPs) are promising photocatalyst for converting water and oxygen into H2O2. However, suboptimal diffusion and mass transfer efficiency of O2 restrict the reaction progress. In this work, the mass transfer of O2 was enhanced by synthesizing POPs with micro–meso–macro hierarchical porous structures. These internally interconnected pore structures through mesopores and macropores not only provide abundant transport channels but also offer a large specific surface area, increasing O2 surface accessibility. The adsorbed O2 is rapidly transferred to the catalytically active sites within the micropores to produce H2O2. Compared to Pda-TAPP with a completely disordered hierarchical pore structure, Dha-TAPP exhibited significantly enhanced H2O2 production activity. The introduction of strong polar hydroxyl functional groups has led to the formation of intramolecular hydrogen-bonding, generating a strong interfacial electric field that enhances the migration driving force of photogenerated electrons. This facilitates the continuous transfer of photogenerated electrons to active sites, accelerating the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) process between O2 and electrons. The H2O2 production rate achieves a rate of 2905.1 μmol g−1 h−1, with a solar-to-chemical conversion (SCC) efficiency of 1.06% under simulated sunlight without aeration. This work provides new insights into the design of hierarchically porous POP photocatalysts for efficient photocatalytic H2O2 production.

Graphical abstract: Hydrogen-bond-regulated hierarchical porous organic polymers for enhanced photocatalytic H2O2 production

Supplementary files

Transparent peer review

To support increased transparency, we offer authors the option to publish the peer review history alongside their article.

View this article’s peer review history

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Apr 2025
Accepted
06 Jun 2025
First published
18 Jun 2025

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2025,13, 22761-22771

Hydrogen-bond-regulated hierarchical porous organic polymers for enhanced photocatalytic H2O2 production

X. Bai, R. Liu, A. Wang, L. Guo, R. Zong and Z. Wei, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2025, 13, 22761 DOI: 10.1039/D5TA03334A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements