Solar-Driven H ₂ O ₂ Production Catalyzed by Natural Wood

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is widely used as an oxidant in various industries. Solar-driven H2O2 production offers a promising approach. However, existing photocatalysts are either challenging to scale up or rely on nonabundant and costly materials/processes. Here, we demonstrate that eight types of natural wood, particularly Whitewood, exhibit superior photocatalytic performance to isolated lignin, enabling H2O2 generation. This enhancement is attributed to the higher content of β-O-4 linkages in wood-derived lignin, which promotes efficient charge separation, and the crystalline structure of the wood matrix, which facilitates charge transport and supports the formation of highly active triplet excitons. The nanoscale hierarchical structure of natural wood, evolved over hundreds of millions of years, is a "perfect composite material" whose performance far surpasses that of single-component lignin. Its honeycomb-like porous structure and aligned fibrous nanostructures endow it with superior optical properties, water and ion transport capabilities, and photocatalytic performance. As a result, natural wood achieves a H2O2 production of 695 μM h–1 under 1 sun irradiation, 2.2 times higher than that of isolated lignin. Furthermore, we demonstrate the direct use of natural wood as a solar-driven reactor for efficient desalination and H2O2 production from seawater (950 μM h–1) and as a photoactivated antibacterial material. This work pioneers the application of natural wood in photocatalysis, offering a scalable and eco-friendly strategy for solar-driven oxidation processes.