Carbon-dot-modified phloroglucinol-glutaraldehyde resin photocatalysts for hydrogen peroxide production

Abstract

Quinoid acceptor units are extremely important to phenolic resin photocatalysts for tuning charge separation and conversion utilization under solar irradiation. However, constructing quinoid acceptor in polycondensation reaction still faces critical challenges at present. Here, we develop a simple and fast strategy that allows carbon dots (CDs) with abundant oxygen-related groups to boost quinoid structure formation. Surprisingly, the obtained CDs-modified phloroglucinol-glutaraldehyde (CDs-PG) resins achieve H2O2 production rates with nearly a 5-fold improvement compared to that of pristine PG resins due to the enhancement of acceptor numbers. Various characterizations and theoretical calculations reveal that the incorporation of CDs into PG resins modifies the pathway of H2O2 photosynthesis, realizing the combination of indirect two-electron oxygen reduction reaction and hole-induced carboxyl group oxidation to generate H2O2. This work paves a way to design ideal photocatalysts using low-cost and multifunctional CDs for highly efficient solar-to-chemical energy conversion.