Electrochemical Water Oxidation to Hydrogen Peroxide on Bipolar Plates
Dhananjai Pangotra, Arne Roth, Volker Sieber, Luciana Vieira
Abstract
The electrochemical production of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) via 2-electron (2e – ) water oxidation reaction (WOR) has gained colossal interest recently. Carbon materials are highly active for anodic H 2 O 2 generation, particularly boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes. However, the cost of BDD is exceedingly high compared to basic carbon materials. Herein, we present a study of WOR on bipolar plates (BPP) as a low-cost alternative and stable electrode for generating H 2 O 2 anodically. Three different commercial BPP with different polymer content were investigated, revealing an effect of the fluoropolymer content in the H 2 O 2 generation. Our experiments show a stable production of H 2 O 2 for up to 100 h at a current density of 200 mA cm –2, with a constant faradaic efficiency of 40% obtained with a BPP sample with high content of fluoropolymer. This work demonstrates how commercial carbon electrode materials, that can be produced at large scale and low cost, can selectively oxidize water to H 2 O 2 . This combination of high performance with scalable and cheap production of the electrode material enables the economically viable technical application of anodic H 2 O 2 production.