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Active Edge‐Site‐Rich Carbon Nanocatalysts with Enhanced Electron Transfer for Efficient Electrochemical Hydrogen Peroxide Production
Author(s) -
Sa Young Jin,
Kim Jae Hyung,
Joo Sang Hoon
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201812435
Subject(s) - electron transfer , catalysis , nanomaterial based catalyst , chemistry , hydrogen peroxide , electrochemistry , carbon fibers , faraday efficiency , hydrogen production , selectivity , kinetics , chemical engineering , inorganic chemistry , photochemistry , materials science , organic chemistry , electrode , physics , quantum mechanics , composite number , engineering , composite material
Abstract A highly efficient, metal‐free carbon nanocatalyst is presented that possesses abundant active, oxygenated graphitic edge sites. The edge site‐rich nanocarbon catalyst exhibits about 28 times higher activity for H 2 O 2 production than a basal plane‐rich carbon nanotube with a H 2 O 2 selectivity over 90 %. The oxidative treatment further promotes the H 2 O 2 generation activity to reach close to the thermodynamic limit. The optimized nanocarbon catalyst shows a very high H 2 O 2 production activity, surpassing previously reported catalysts in alkaline media. Moreover, it can stably produce H 2 O 2 for 16 h with Faradaic efficiency reaching 99 % and accumulated H 2 O 2 concentration of 24±2 m m . Importantly, we find that the heterogeneous electron transfer kinetics of the carbon‐based catalyst is closely related to the electrocatalytic activity, suggesting that first outer‐sphere electron transfer to O 2 is an important step governing the H 2 O 2 production rate.