Synergistic effect of doped nitrogen and oxygen-containing functional groups on electrochemical synthesis of hydrogen peroxide

Abstract

Electrocatalytic production of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) by 2e⁻ oxygen reduction (ORR) is a clean on-site method. Although doped carbon materials have been widely used in hydrogen peroxide research, few studies have been conducted on the synergy between the functional groups and doping elements in such materials. In addition, the methods for preparing materials with multiple functional groups are still lacking. Therefore, we developed a simple method for preparing carbon-based materials (e.g., N-CBMC-500) with functional groups and nitrogen doping. Then, we explored the underlying mechanism and electrocatalytic performance for H₂O₂ production. The results suggest that the samples have high selectivity (95.9%) at 0.40 V_RHE, and the H₂O₂ yield measured by using the self-made flow-cell setup is as high as 2.11 (alkaline), 2.46 (neutral), and 1.20 (acidic) mol g_catalyst⁻¹ h⁻¹. The microporous structure was determined by experimental characterization, and theoretical calculations show that the surface contains a large number of oxygen functional groups (–OH and CO) and nitrogen elements synergistically acting together in the 2e⁻ ORR reaction. Finally, the best electrochemical H₂O₂ performance is achieved.