Efficient photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide generation coupled with selective benzylamine oxidation over defective ZrS₃ nanobelts

Photocatalytic hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) generation represents a promising approach for artificial photosynthesis. However, the sluggish half-reaction of water oxidation significantly limits the efficiency of H₂O₂ generation. Here, a benzylamine oxidation with more favorable thermodynamics is employed as the half-reaction to couple with H₂O₂ generation in water by using defective zirconium trisulfide (ZrS₃) nanobelts as a photocatalyst. The ZrS₃ nanobelts with disulfide (S₂²⁻) and sulfide anion (S²⁻) vacancies exhibit an excellent photocatalytic performance for H₂O₂ generation and simultaneous oxidation of benzylamine to benzonitrile with a high selectivity of >99%. More importantly, the S₂²⁻ and S²⁻ vacancies can be separately introduced into ZrS₃ nanobelts in a controlled manner. The S₂²⁻ vacancies are further revealed to facilitate the separation of photogenerated charge carriers. The S²⁻ vacancies can significantly improve the electron conduction, hole extraction, and kinetics of benzylamine oxidation. As a result, the use of defective ZrS₃ nanobelts yields a high production rate of 78.1 ± 1.5 and 32.0 ± 1.2 μmol h⁻¹ for H₂O₂ and benzonitrile, respectively, under a simulated sunlight irradiation.