Design strategies of carbon-based single-atom catalysts for efficient electrochemical hydrogen peroxide production

Abstract

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a valuable green chemical oxidant, which has been widely used in energy and environment fields. The electrochemical two-electron (2e−) oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) has been considered a ‘‘green’’ way to realize decentralized production of H2O2. As an emerging catalytic material, carbon-based single-atom catalysts (SACs) enable the tuning of the electronic structure of active metal centers and maximized atomic utilization toward the selective 2e− ORR electrochemical H2O2 generation. Herein, elementary knowledge and theory of electrochemical H2O2 synthesis, including the H2O2 generation mechanism and the catalyst performance evaluation parameters, is presented at the beginning of this work. Subsequently, the design strategies of carbon-based SACs (central metal atoms selection, coordinated atoms modulation, and environmental atoms modification) for H2O2 selectivity production by the 2e− ORR route are comprehensively reviewed. Eventually, some perspectives on the opportunities and challenges for selective electrochemical H2O2 production by carbon-based SACs are presented on the basis of understanding the recent advances.