One minute from pristine carbon to an electrocatalyst for hydrogen peroxide production

• Published in: Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Vol. 7; no. 37; pp. 21329 - 21337
• Main Authors: Wang, Yun-Lu, Li, Shi-Song, Yang, Xiao-Hong, Xu, Guo-Yong, Zhu, Zi-Chun, Chen, Ping, Li, Shan-Qing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 2019
• Subjects: Carbon; Catalysis; Catalysts; Current efficiency; Electrocatalysts; Electrochemistry; Formaldehyde; Freezing; Hydrogen peroxide; Hydrogen production; Industrial applications; Liquid nitrogen; Metals; Selectivity; Wastewater treatment
• ISSN: 2050-7488; 2050-7496
• DOI: 10.1039/c9ta04788c

Electrochemical production of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) via oxygen reduction is a two-electron electrochemical process that has promising applications in production. In practical applications, developing high-performance nonprecious metal or metal-free electrocatalysts with cheap and commercially available source materials is challenging. Here, we prepared a high-performance electrocatalyst from commercial mesoporous carbon, CMK3, via microwave treatment for H 2 O 2 production. Only 1 minute was consumed for the conversion of pristine CMK3 to a high-performance electrocatalyst via a microwave treatment and liquid nitrogen freezing process. The catalyst exhibited higher selectivity (∼90%) and current efficiency (∼95%) than pristine CMK3 (∼50% and ∼55%) in alkaline solution. Higher productivity of H 2 O 2 was obtained (2476 mmol g catalyst h −1 at 0.3 V vs. RHE) than for the catalysts reported before. We investigated the system containing the H 2 O 2 produced in situ for formaldehyde-containing wastewater treatment, and it exhibited high performance for reducing formaldehyde. This process presented a simple, fast and readily scalable approach to change a low-performance carbon material into a high-performance electrocatalyst. This work will be helpful in developing a high-performance electrocatalyst for producing H 2 O 2 and the practical industrial application of reducing O 2 to H 2 O 2 by an electrochemical method. It will also help to develop other high-performance electrocatalysts. An excellent electrocatalyst for producing H 2 O 2 was prepared from pristine CMK3 by microwave and subsequent liquid nitrogen treatments in 1 minute.