Visible-Light Driven H2O-to-H2O2 Reaction by Nitrogen-Enriched Resins for Photocatalytic Oxidation of an Organic Pollutant in Wastewater

Je-Wei Hsu; Ling-Wei Wei; Wan-Ru Chen; Shou-Heng Liu; H Paul Wang

doi:10.1021/acsomega.2c02371

Visible-Light Driven H₂O-to-H₂O₂ Reaction by Nitrogen-Enriched Resins for Photocatalytic Oxidation of an Organic Pollutant in Wastewater

ACS Omega. 2022 Jun 29;7(27):23727-23735. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c02371. eCollection 2022 Jul 12.

Authors

Je-Wei Hsu¹, Ling-Wei Wei¹, Wan-Ru Chen¹, Shou-Heng Liu¹, H Paul Wang¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Environmental Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan.

Abstract

A photocatalytic H₂O-to-H₂O₂ reaction for sustainable organic wastewater treatment is environmentally attractive. Phenolic resins, inexpensive metal-free photocatalysts, are capable of harvesting visible light. Herein, novel nitrogen-enriched resin photocatalysts with a desired band-gap energy (1.83-1.98 eV) for harvesting visible light were prepared by copolymerization of resorcinol and melem for simultaneous photocatalytic H₂O-to-H₂O₂ and oxidation of methylene blue. Under visible light irradiation for 5 h, very high yields of H₂O₂ (870-975 μM of H₂O₂/g/h) by RFM resin photocatalysts could be achieved. The photocatalytic H₂O₂ for reactive oxygen species (^•OH) and photogenerated h⁺ could account for high conversion (40% conversion under visible light irradiation within 3 h) in oxidation of methylene blue. Such unique low-cost metal-free resins demonstrate the visible light photocatalytic H₂O-to-H₂O₂ reaction which can synergize with the oxidation of organic pollutants in wastewater.