Defect engineering modified bismuth vanadate toward efficient solar hydrogen peroxide production.

Industry for producing the vital chemical hydrogen peroxide (HO) requires drastically reductions in energy consumption and environmental pollution. Solar chemical conversion from O to HO is considered to be the most promising alternative method, nevertheless, weak energy coupling between photo-charges and adsorbed species limits the yield of HO. Herein, we demonstrate that oxygen vacancy-rich BiVO can efficiently generate HO in pure water under visible light irradiation without any heterojunctions or precious-metal cocatalysts. Oxygen vacancies, as typical coordinatively unsaturated sites, enable efficient O adsorption and enrichment, and then thriving chemisorption can spatially facilitate photoexcited electrons transfer to oxygen species. Compared to pristine BiVO, defective BiVO enhanced O adsorption and interfacial electron transfer rate to O by 19 and 23 times, respectively, resulting in a more than 32-fold increase in HO production. This research offers a new perspective for bridging solar and chemical energy by assuring species chemisorption.