Efficient Electrochemical Production of H2O2 on Hollow N-Doped Carbon Nanospheres with Abundant Micropores

Yezhou Hu; Jingjing Zhang; Tao Shen; Zhengrong Li; Ke Chen; Yun Lu; Jian Zhang; Deli Wang

doi:10.1021/acsami.1c05353

Efficient Electrochemical Production of H₂O₂ on Hollow N-Doped Carbon Nanospheres with Abundant Micropores

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Jun 15. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c05353. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yezhou Hu¹, Jingjing Zhang¹, Tao Shen¹, Zhengrong Li¹, Ke Chen¹, Yun Lu¹, Jian Zhang¹, Deli Wang¹

Affiliation

¹ Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Huazhong University of Science and Technology), Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry and Service Failure, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, PR China.

PMID: 34130448
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c05353

Abstract

Electrocatalytic two-electron (2e^-) oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has been regarded as an efficient strategy to achieve onsite H₂O₂ generation under ambient conditions. However, due to the sluggish kinetics and competitive reaction between 2e^- and 4e^- ORR, exploring more efficient ORR catalysts with dominant 2e^- ORR selectivity is of significance. Herein, hollow N-doped carbon spheres (HNCS) with abundant micropores through a template-directed method are presented. Consequently, the selectivity of the HNCS reaches ∼91.9% at 0.7 V (vs RHE), and the output for H₂O₂ production is up to 618.5 mmol g_catalyst^-1 h^-1 in 0.1 M KOH solution. The enhanced performance of HNCS for H₂O₂ electrosynthesis could be attributed to the hollow structure and heteroatom/defect/pore incorporation. The strategy presented here could shed light on the design of efficient carbon-based materials for improved 2e^- ORR.

Keywords: carbon-based electrocatalysts; electrochemical H2O2 production; hollow N-doped carbon spheres; self-templating strategy; two-electron oxygen reduction reaction.