Electrochemical oxygen reduction to hydrogen peroxide at practical rates in strong acidic media

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 2880 - 11
• Main Authors: Zhang, Xiao, Zhao, Xunhua, Zhu, Peng, Adler, Zachary, Wu, Zhen-Yu, Liu, Yuanyue, Wang, Haotian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 24.05.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 147/135; 639/166/898; 639/301/299/886; 639/638/161/886; 639/638/77/885; Additives; Alkali metals; Black carbon; Carbon black; Catalysts; Cations; Density functional theory; Electrochemistry; Electrolytes; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogen peroxide; Metal ions; multidisciplinary; Oxygen; Protons; Reactors; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Selectivity; Shielding; Solid electrolytes
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30337-0

Electrochemical oxygen reduction to hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) in acidic media, especially in proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrode assembly reactors, suffers from low selectivity and the lack of low-cost catalysts. Here we present a cation-regulated interfacial engineering approach to promote the H 2 O 2 selectivity (over 80%) under industrial-relevant generation rates (over 400 mA cm −2 ) in strong acidic media using just carbon black catalyst and a small number of alkali metal cations, representing a 25-fold improvement compared to that without cation additives. Our density functional theory simulation suggests a “shielding effect” of alkali metal cations which squeeze away the catalyst/electrolyte interfacial protons and thus prevent further reduction of generated H 2 O 2 to water. A double-PEM solid electrolyte reactor was further developed to realize a continuous, selective (∼90%) and stable (over 500 hours) generation of H 2 O 2 via implementing this cation effect for practical applications. Electrochemical oxygen reduction to H 2 O 2 in acidic media suffers from low selectivity, especially at high current densities. Here, the authors report a cation-regulated “shielding effect” to promote the H 2 O 2 selectivity under industrial-relevant current in strong acid.