Photocatalytic producing dihydroxybenzenes from phenol enabled by gathering oxygen vacancies in ultrathin porous ZnO nanosheets

The ultrathin porous ZnO nanosheets (thickness is as low as 3 nm) with abundant active oxygen vacancies were successfully fabricated, and a greatly-improved photocatalytic activity for oxidation of phenol to DHB (31.5% conversion & 76.7% selectivity) was achieved under the mild reaction conditions.