Novel bio-solar hybrid photoelectrochemical synthesis for selective hydrogen peroxide production

However, the conventional processes for H2O2 production are either energy-intensive or with high environmental impact. Herein, we proposed an innovative bio-solar hybrid photoelectrochemical synthesis (BSPS) system that couples microbial photoelectrochemical synthesis and polyterthiophene (pTTh)-based photocatalysis for efficient and selective synthesis of green H2O2.

The impacts of the key operational factors such as the applied voltage, pH, aeration rate, light intensity, thickness of pTTh catalytic layer, and electrolyte nature and concentrations on the H2O2 synthesis were assessed. The BSPS system yielded a cumulative production of 232.5 mg L-1 of H2O2 in 12 h under LED light irradiation, which is 6.1-fold the yield using a typical graphite plate electrode and 7.8-fold the yield when the system was run under darkness.