Effect of rare earth cerium doping on the activity of ZnO nanomaterials for producing H2O2 by piezoelectric catalysis

Piezoelectric catalysis is an eco-friendly method to obtain hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), whereas, the challenges for H₂O₂ synthesis, by piezoelectric catalysis, is the unsatisfied yield and adsorption reactant. Herein, for promoting the yield of H₂O₂ in piezocatalytic, a series of rare earth cerium are doped into zinc oxide. The Ce-ZnO(CZ) expose more active sites and owning stronger piezo-response. Consequently, the productivity of H₂O₂ from CZ₁ is 243.67 μmol g⁻¹ h⁻¹ in air and pure water, it is 5.8 times as much as pure ZnO. Noteworthily, sacrificial agents in H₂O₂ generation is absent. Moreover, from the mechanism study, it can be discovered that the water oxidation reaction(WOR) is the main pathway to produce H₂O₂ and the oxygen reduction reaction(ORR) is auxiliary. This study give a new perspective to explore the effect of doping rare earth Ce on ZnO and infer the possible mechanism of H₂O₂ generation.