Tailoring the Electrochemical Production of H₂O₂: Strategies for the Rational Design of High‐Performance Electrocatalysts

Abstract

The production of H2O2 via the electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) presents an attractive decentralized alternative to the current industry‐dominant anthraquinone process. However, in order to achieve viable commercialization of this process, a state‐of‐the‐art electrocatalyst exhibiting high activity, selectivity, and long‐term stability is imperative for industrial applications. Herein, an in‐depth discussion on the current frontiers in electrocatalyst design is provided, emphasizing the influences of electronic and geometric effects, surface structure, and the effects of heteroatom functionalization on the catalytic performance of commonly studied materials (metals, alloys, carbons). The limitations on the performance of the current catalyst materials are also discussed, together with alternative strategies to overcome the impediments. Finally, directions of future research efforts for the discovery of next‐generation ORR electrocatalysts are highlighted.

Oxygen induced promotion of electrochemical reduction of CO2 via co-electrolysis

“…The CO 2 RR activity and spectroscopic results show that the formation of H 2 O 2 is unlikely the cause of the enhanced CO 2 RR performance during the co-electrolysis with O 2 . H 2 O 2 is a possible product of the ORR via the 2-electron pathway 43 . If produced during the co-electrolysis of CO 2 and O 2 on Cu, H 2 O 2 could potentially modify the surface speciation and impact of the rate and product distribution of the CO 2 RR.…”

Recent Progress on Carbonaceous Material Engineering for Electrochemical Hydrogen Peroxide Generation

“…The pyridinic-N could prevent this effect by occupying the lone pair electrons to form an N-H bond; thus, two-electron pathway occurred in acidic conditions, which was consistent with Refs. [19,20,47]. Although the pyridinic-N exhibited excellent selectivity for two-electron ORR, Strasser et al [45] found that the selectivity would be decreased when the content of nitrogen-doped sites was extremely high.…”

A Review on Challenges and Successes in Atomic-Scale Design of Catalysts for Electrochemical Synthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide

“…[35][36][37] We emphasize that the literature includes a number of high-quality pure experimental studies in the area of 2e-ORR which have been thoroughly addressed in other review papers. [38][39][40][41] However, purely experimental studies are out of the scope of this review paper and our focus herein is on the simulation-based guidance of trends in H 2 O 2 synthesis.…”