Electrochemical Manufacturing of Hydrogen Peroxide with High Concentration and Durability
Xia Yang, Peng Zhu, Yile Yang, Chang Qiu, Haotian Wang
Abstract
Electrochemical manufacturing of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) via oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has been widely recognized as an alternative to the conventional anthraquinone process, but the output H 2 O 2 concentration that it can reach and the long-term electrolysis stability are still far from industrial requirements. Here, we report the promising potential of the porous solid electrolyte (PSE) reactor for producing high-concentration and high-purity H 2 O 2 in high stability. By identifying the issue of high H 2 O 2 concentration at the cathode/membrane interface that could lead to membrane degradation and low ORR Faradaic efficiencies (FEs), we adopted a water recirculation flow operation instead of continuous flow to effectively carry out the generated H 2 O 2 product from the PSE layer without interfacial accumulation. This recirculation strategy boosted the H 2 O 2 FE from 23% to 50% to produce a 30 wt % H 2 O 2 stream and successfully extended the lifetime of the PSE reactor to ∼1000 h while continuously outputting 20 wt % H 2 O 2 under 100 mA cm –2 operation current.