Solar energy driven value-added oxidation process

Abstract

Climate change has urged the development of sustainable catalytic process to power our society. Applying solar energy to drive catalytic reactions is regarded as a green chemistry for value-added conversions. The photogenerated electrons have been applied for many promising processes like hydrogen production, carbon dioxide reduction and nitrogen fixation, but the photogenerated holes are less focused on. Other than traditional oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with low economic value, some more promising reactions are expected to be explored including water oxidation for hydrogen peroxide generation, methane oxidation for methanol generation. In this review, we will summarize the alternative partial water oxidation reaction (PWOR) and partial methane oxidation reaction (PMOR) with the production of useful hydrogen peroxide and methanol respectively. Advanced materials engineering has been implemented to perform valuable conversion of photogenerated holes. The design concepts, principles, and traditional catalysts for PWOR and PMOR have been summarized. It is expected that this review can bring solar driven reaction to another innovative stage with the target of creating more value from photogenerated charges.