Building and identifying highly active oxygenated groups in carbon materials for oxygen reduction to H2O2

Abstract The one-step electrochemical synthesis of H 2 O 2 is an on-site method that reduces dependence on the energy-intensive anthraquinone process. Oxidized carbon materials have proven to be promising catalysts due to their low cost and facile synthetic procedures. However, the nature of the active sites is still controversial, and direct experimental evidence is presently lacking. Here, we activate a carbon material with dangling edge sites and then decorate them with targeted functional groups. We show that quinone-enriched samples exhibit high selectivity and activity with a H 2 O 2 yield ratio of up to 97.8 % at 0.75 V vs. RHE. Using density functional theory calculations, we identify the activity…

• UO
  University of Calgary
• NR
  National Research Foundation

  Awards: 2016R1A5A1009405, 2014R1A3A2069102
• NR
  National Research Foundation of Korea

  Awards: 2016R1A5A1009405, 2014R1A3A2069102, 10Z20130011057
• CF
  Canada First Research Excellence Fund