Customizing the synergy of reactive oxygen species and photoactive charges on Bi2O2CO3/ZnIn2S4 for the selective photooxidation transformation of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural

The photooxidation of renewable bioderivatives into value-added chemicals is highly significant; however, it typically exhibits low selectivity owing to the challenges in controlling the oxidative species and managing the desirable reaction pathways. In this work, we used the Bi2O2CO3/ZnIn2S4 heterostructure, prepared by a CO2-mediated solid–solid phase transition, to catalyze the photooxidation of bioderived 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) into 2,5-diformylfuran (DFF) with a high selectivity of 98.1% and a yield rate of 882.6 µmol g−1 h−1. The metal carbonate/oxide heterointerface enables the effective transfer of photoactive electrons and holes, optimizes surface oxygen activation, and facilitates the synergy of ·OOH and holes to selectively convert HMF into DFF. The findings unravel how the tailoring and coupling of the electron–hole pairs and reactive oxygen species on heterostructured materials can promote the usage of renewable feedstocks for sustainable development.