An anthraquinone-based conjugated donor–acceptor (D–A) polymer as a highly efficient photocatalyst for hydrogen peroxide production

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Vol. 12; no. 29; pp. 18433 - 18439
• Main Authors: Munde, Ajay V., Sanke, Devendra M., Ghosh, Nani Gopal, Bezboruah, Jasmine, Roy, Shiladitya, Zade, Sanjio S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 23.07.2024
• Subjects: Anthraquinone; Anthraquinones; Catalysts; Chemical energy; Chemical synthesis; Electromagnetic absorption; Energy conversion; Energy conversion efficiency; Fuel cells; Hydrogen peroxide; Irradiation; Nanoparticles; Photocatalysis; Photocatalysts; Polymers; Resorcinol; Solar energy
• ISSN: 2050-7488; 2050-7496
• DOI: 10.1039/D4TA01248H

Photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) generation from oxygen and water using a polymeric photocatalyst is a promising method for solar to chemical energy transformation. Here, we report the hydrothermal synthesis of anthraquinone-based conjugated polymer (ACP) nanoparticles (NPs) for efficient H 2 O 2 generation. This synthesis avoids the use of a metal-based catalyst. Anthraquinone (AQ) is crosslinked to resorcinol units of the polymeric chains via a methylene linker to obtain ACP NPs. In the polymeric framework, AQ acts as an acceptor (A), whereas resorcinol acts as a donor (D) through its benzenoid/quinoid forms. The arrangement of donor–acceptor units in the polymeric framework and π-stacked aromatic structure resulted in a broad range of visible light absorption with a low bandgap of 1.78 eV. Hydrothermal synthesis produced ACP as uniformly grown globular-shaped particles with an average size of ∼450 nm. The ACP photocatalyst demonstrated high activity of H 2 O 2 generation with a solar-to-chemical energy conversion efficiency of 1.92% in pure water without a sacrificial proton donor. We could achieve a 28.09 millimolar concentration of H 2 O 2 after 20 h irradiation in pure water under ambient conditions with an initial rate of H 2 O 2 generation of 6097 μmol g −1 h −1 . This concentration is almost sufficient for direct use in single-compartment H 2 O 2 fuel cells.