Chemical Identification of Catalytically Active Sites on Oxygen-doped Carbon Nanosheet to Decipher the High Activity for Electro-synthesis Hydrogen Peroxide

摘要

Electrochemical production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) through two-electron (2 e(-)) oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is an on-site and clean route. Oxygen-doped carbon materials with high ORR activity and H2O2 selectivity have been considered as the promising catalysts, however, there is still a lack of direct experimental evidence to identify true active sites at the complex carbon surface. Herein, we propose a chemical titration strategy to decipher the oxygen-doped carbon nanosheet (OCNS900) catalyst for 2 e(-) ORR. The OCNS900 exhibits outstanding 2 e(-) ORR performances with onset potential of 0.825 V (vs. RHE), mass activity of 14.5 A g(-1) at 0.75 V (vs. RHE) and H2O2 production rate of 770 mmol g(-1) h(-1) in flow cell, surpassing most reported carbon catalysts. Through selective chemical titration of C=O, C-OH, and COOH groups, we found that C=O species contributed to the most electrocatalytic activity and were the most active sites for 2 e(-) ORR, which were corroborated by theoretical calculations.