Coaxial Metal‐Nitrogen–Carbon Single‐Atom Catalysts Boost Acid Hydrogen Peroxide Production
Abstract Electrosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) by two‐electron oxygen reduction reaction (2e − ORR) under acidic conditions is promising. However, constructing a highly efficient acid‐resistant 2e − ORR electrocatalyst is critical but challenging. Herein, a coaxial cobalt single‐atom catalyst on carbon nanotubes (Co SA ‐N‐C/CNTs) is designed and synthesized by an ingenious separation chemical vapor deposition (SCVD) strategy, which achieves higher ORR activity, dominated 2e − selectivity, and superior stability in acid, compared to the counterpart nanoparticle catalyst prepared by traditional mixture pyrolysis. The as‐assembled electrode using Co SA ‐N‐C/CNTs catalyst demonstrates a high H 2 O 2 yield in excess of 2000 mmol g cat −1 h −1 with a Faraday efficiency of >90% over 100 h without decay in a flow cell, as superior to the most reported acidic H 2 O 2 production catalysts. Experimental characterization and theoretical calculations reveal that such excellent 2e − ORR performance of Co SA ‐N‐C/CNTs originate from the combined advantages of strongly coupled coaxial core–shell structure and highly dispersed single‐atom property. Most importantly, a series of other coaxial transition metal single‐atom catalysts (M SA ‐N‐C/CNTs, M = Fe, Cu, or Ni) are prepared through this SCVD strategy, and they all show enhanced ORR performance, demonstrating universality.
Authors
- Lipiao Bao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6308-1181)
- Hongshang Hu
- Xing Qiang Lü (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2741-8733)
- Muneerah Alomar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7194-5776)
- Lilong Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3003-5258)
- Shiyuan Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0756-1439)
- Lei Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9714-2130)
- Xinyu Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7350-423X)
- Jian Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7584-3799)
- Haoyu Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1163-0417)
- Chang Zhang
- Huiyao Qi
Institutions
- Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University (SA)
- Hainan University (CN)
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Wuxi Institute of Technology (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Published
- 2024-12-10
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202419220
- Citations
- 21
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.15
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- National Key Research and Development Program of China