Triazine-Engineered Conjugated Organic Polymers for Efficient Photocatalytic Hydrogen Peroxide Production

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), as a versatile oxidant, has been broadly applied in environmental protection, disinfection, and chemical preparation. However, the classical anthraquinone method suffers from excessive energy use and acute environmental impact, making the development of efficient and sustainable photocatalytic H₂O₂ production methods highly desirable. In this work, two semiconductor conjugated organic polymers (COPs), TTPN and TBPN, were designed and synthesized. Structural characterizations and photoelectrochemical analyses demonstrated that the introduction of triazine rings significantly boosted the separation and migration of photogenerated electrons and holes, thereby decreasing the interfacial charge transfer resistance and improving the photocatalytic activity. Further theoretical calculations show that the electrostatic potential distribution of TTPN exhibits more negative regions compared with that of TBPN. This feature not only facilitates the accumulation of photogenerated electrons around the triazine rings to take part in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) but also simultaneously weakens the spatial overlap of electrons and holes, thereby suppressing their recombination. Under visible-light irradiation, TTPN exhibited a markedly superior photocatalytic H₂O₂ production performance compared to TBPN, which produced H₂O₂ with a rate of 1578.2 μmol/(g·h), along with excellent stability and recyclability.