Recent advances in tailoring the microenvironment of Pd-based catalysts for enhancing the performance in the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a valuable clean chemical, which is widely applied in modern industrial production. In the past few decades, H2O2 has been mainly produced industrially by the anthraquinone method, but the process is complicated and energy consuming, which is only economical for large-scale production and is harmful to the environment. The direct synthesis of H2O2 is considered a promising process to replace the anthraquinone method with high atomic economy, no hazardous by-products, and convenient operation, which has attracted much attention. In this review, we systematically present the recent advances in tuning the microenvironment of Pd-based catalysts for enhancing the performance of the direct synthesis of H2O2, including the modulation of active sites and support, from the viewpoint of the reaction mechanism. Finally, a summary and perspective on the most pressing issues and associated untapped research prospects with the direct synthesis of H2O2 are discussed. The purpose of this review is to provide in-depth insights and guidelines to promote the development of novel catalysts for the direct synthesis of H2O2. The direct synthesis of H2O2 (DSHP) is considered a promising process to replace anthraquinone method. In this review, we discussed the recent advances in tuning the microenvironment for enhancing DSHP performance and pointed out the challenges.