Recent Progress in Situ Application of H₂O₂ Produced via Catalytic Synthesis

Industrial production of H₂O₂ requires lots of energy and causes environmental pollution. Moreover, in subsequent applications, much economic loss could be produced during the transportation process of H₂O₂ and its dilution process. Therefore, it is highly desirable for in situ application of H₂O₂. In recent years, catalytic synthesis of H₂O₂, e. g., direct catalytic synthesis, electrocatalytic synthesis, and photocatalytic synthesis, has attracted more and more attention because the continuous and low-concentration H₂O₂ produced by catalytic synthesis can be directly used for the oxidation of organic compounds, effectively avoiding the shortcomings of the current industrial route. Here, we briefly reviewed the latest processes for the catalytic production of H₂O₂ via various routes. On this basis, we summarized and discussed the in situ application of H₂O₂ in typical organic conversion reactions, including the ammoximation of ketones, the oxidation of alcohols, the oxidation of C-H bonds, and the oxidation of olefins. Some in situ coupling reactions have shown excellent performance with high conversion and selectivity, and the economic cost has been significantly reduced. Finally, the shortcomings of the in situ utilization of H₂O₂ in coupling reactions were analyzed, and some strategies for promoting the efficiency of the H₂O₂ application in organic synthesis were proposed.