Effect of calcination temperatures on photocatalytic H2O2-production activity of ZnO nanorods

Photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production from O2 and H2O is an ideal process for so-la-to-chemical energy conversion. Herein, ZnO nanorods are prepared via a simple hydrothermal method for photocatalytic H2O2 production. The ZnO nanorods exhibit varied performance with different calcination temperatures. Benefiting from calcination, the separation efficiency of photo-induced carriers is significantly improved, leading to the superior photocatalytic activity for H2O2 production. The H2O2 produced by ZnO calcined at 300 °C is 285 μmol L-1, which is over 5 times larger than that produced by untreated ZnO. This work provides an insight into photocatalytic H2O2 production mechanism by ZnO nanorods, and presents a promising strategy to H2O2 production.