Langmuir–Blodgett Monolayer of Cobalt Phthalocyanine as Ultralow Loading Single-Atom Catalyst for Highly Efficient H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> Production
Da Sol Jeong, Hoon Ju Lee, Young Jin Park, Hyun-Tae Hwang, Kyung Yeol, Minsu Kim, June Sung Lim, Sang Hoon Joo, Jieun Yang, Hyeon Suk Shin
Abstract
The electrochemical production of H 2 O 2 via the two-electron oxygen-reduction reaction (2e – ORR) has been actively studied using systems with atomically dispersed metal–nitrogen–carbon (M–N–C) structures. However, the development of well-defined M–N–C structures that restrict the migration and agglomeration of single-metal sites remains elusive. Herein, we demonstrate a Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) monolayer of cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc) on monolayer graphene (LB CoPc/G) as a single-metal catalyst for the 2e – ORR. The as-prepared CoPc LB monolayer has a β-form crystalline structure with a lattice space for the facile adsorption of oxygen molecules on the cobalt active sites. The CoPc LB monolayer system provides highly exposed Co atoms in a well-defined structure without agglomeration, resulting in significantly improved catalytic activity, which is manifested by a very high H 2 O 2 production rate per catalyst (31.04 mol g cat –1 h –1 ) and TOF (36.5 s –1 ) with constant production stability for 24 hours. To the best of our knowledge, the CoPc LB monolayer system exhibits the highest H 2 O 2 production rate per active site. This fundamental study suggests that an LB monolayer of molecules with single-metal atoms as a well-defined structure works for single-atom catalysts.