Photoelectrocatalytic hydrogen peroxide production based on transition-metal-oxide semiconductors

As a kind of valuable chemicals, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) has aroused growing attention in many fields. However, H2O2 production via traditional anthraquinone process suffers from challenges of large energy consumption and heavy carbon footprint. Alternatively, photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) production of H2O2 has shown great promises to make H2O2 a renewable fuel to store solar energy. Transition-metal-oxide (TMO) semiconductor based photoelectrocatalysts are among the most promising candidates for PEC H2O2 production. In this work, the fundamentals of H2O2 synthesis through PEC process are briefly introduced, followed by the state-of-the-art of TMO semiconductor based photoelectrocatalysts for PEC production H2O2. Then, the progress on H2O2 fuel cells from on-site PEC production is presented. Furthermore, the challenges and future perspectives of PEC H2O2 production are discussed. This review aims to provide inspiration for the PEC production of H2O2 as a renewable solar fuel.