Photocatalytic H2O2 production over photocatalysts prepared by phosphine-protected Au101 nanoparticles on WO3

Photocatalytic H2O2 synthesis is an appealing and feasible strategy to replace the energy-intensive, tedious, and waste-generating anthraquinone process. This work investigated photocatalytic H2O2 production using monodisperse gold nanoclusters Au101(PPh3)21Cl5 supported on WO3. Both uncalcined and calcined Au101/WO3 photocatalysts produce over 75 mM g−1 h−1 of H2O2 under UV light irradiation while pure WO3 is inactive. At early times (up to 30 min), the production rate of H2O2 from calcined Au101/WO3 reaches 173 mM g−1 h−1 and is almost double the rate of the uncalcined catalyst (93 mM g−1 h−1). The roles of Au101 have been identified to reduce the charge carrier recombination and provide the active sites for O2 reduction which significantly enhances the photoactivity. The higher photoactivity of calcined versus uncalcined Au101/WO3 can be attributed to the strong metal–support interaction and aggregated Au101. This work highlights a simple preparation of highly active photocatalysts derived from Au101 clusters and WO3 to produce H2O2.