Engineering oxygen vacancies of 2D WO3 for visible-light-driven benzene hydroxylation with dioxygen

•2D tungsten oxide nanosheets with abundant oxygen vacancies was constructed.•Pt species were loaded on 2D tungsten oxide to fabricate Schottky junctions.•The catalyst was efficient in benzene hydroxylation with dioxygen under visible light.•Oxygen vacancies promoted the O2 adsorption and activation to accelerate reaction.•Schottky junctions improved the charge transfer and the successive hydroxylation.