Enhanced hydrogen peroxide photosynthesis achieved over resorcinol formalde resin/polytetrafluoroehtylene through contact electrification

Photocatalytic activity of pristine resorcinol formalde (RF) resin in hydrogen peroxide production is still unsatisfying for practical application because of poor separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers. Contact electrification (CE) between polytetrafluoroehtylene (PTFE) and water (H 2 O) can not only generate hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) but also form a strong interfacial electrostatic field (IEF). However, whether the IEF can be used to promote the separation of photogenerated carriers of the photocatalysts is still unclear. Herein, taking RF resin as a model photocatalyst, we have synthesized RF resin/PTFE photocatalytic/contact-electro-catalytic composite catalysts and further demonstrated that the IEF formed between PTFE and H 2 O could be used to facilitate the separation of photogenerated carriers of the RF resins. As a result, H 2 O 2 production rate reached 56.5 µmol·h −1 over RF/PTFE under simultaneous visible light irradiation and ultrasonication, which is 33-times and 2-times higher than those obtained on individual PTFE (1.7 µmol·h −1 ) and RF (28.1 µmol·h −1 ). CE could also enhance H 2 O 2 generation rate of other photocatalysts, showing its generality. Not only that, RF/PTFE could be used to fabricate CE-photocatalysis-self-Fenton system for environmental purification.