Design strategies of carbon-based single-atom catalysts for efficient electrochemical hydrogen peroxide production
Zhimin Gao, Qiuzi Zhu, Yanyan Cao, Cunshi Wang, Luming Liu, Jianzhong Zhu
Abstract
Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) is a valuable green chemical oxidant, which has been widely used in energy and environment fields. The electrochemical two-electron (2e − ) oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has been considered a ‘‘green’’ way to realize decentralized production of H 2 O 2 . As an emerging catalytic material, carbon-based single-atom catalysts (SACs) enable the tuning of the electronic structure of active metal centers and maximized atomic utilization toward the selective 2e − ORR electrochemical H 2 O 2 generation. Herein, elementary knowledge and theory of electrochemical H 2 O 2 synthesis, including the H 2 O 2 generation mechanism and the catalyst performance evaluation parameters, is presented at the beginning of this work. Subsequently, the design strategies of carbon-based SACs (central metal atoms selection, coordinated atoms modulation, and environmental atoms modification) for H 2 O 2 selectivity production by the 2e − ORR route are comprehensively reviewed. Eventually, some perspectives on the opportunities and challenges for selective electrochemical H 2 O 2 production by carbon-based SACs are presented on the basis of understanding the recent advances.