Rational engineering WO3-X/CNTs@carbon fiber membrane for the high-efficient produce H2O2 via electrochemical two-electron water oxidation route

Abstract

The electrochemical two-electron water oxidation reaction (2e-WOR) offers a promising avenue for hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production. It is crucial to design electrocatalysts with high selectivity, yield, resource abundance, and environmental friendliness. In this paper, as a new generation 2e-WOR electrocatalyst, the WO3-X/CNTs@carbon fiber membrane nanostructure with abundant oxygen-rich vacancy (OV) has been discovered by a series of test techniques including XRD, FE-SEM, TEM, FT-IR, Raman and XPS, comprising interconnected carbon nanotubes and carbon fibers enveloped in WO3 nanorods with oxygen-rich vacancies. By comparing the specific surface area of WO3-x/CNTs@carbon fiber membrane at different temperatures, it was observed that the maximum value is 44.09 m2/g when the mass ratio of AMT to PAN was 3:2 at 600 °C. Furthermore, the WO3-X/CNTs@carbon fiber membrane can be directly utilized as an independent electrode. The electrochemical performance test revealed that the Faraday efficiency of the WO3-X/CNTs @CF-600-2 can reach 54 % (2.48 V vs RHE (reversible hydrogen electrode)), while the H2O2 yield can achieve 10.3 μmol· min−1·cm−2, nearly ten times higher than that of pure WO3. Furthermore, the stability testing demonstrated that after 12 h, the WO3-X/CNTs @CF-600-2 exhibited excellent stability with minimal change in its Faraday efficiency. This enhancement is attributed to the improved selectivity of WO3, excellent electrical conductivity, and mass transfer performance of carbon fiber. Finally, we proposed a mechanism for 2e-WOR and provided some perspectives on this reaction along with summarizing recent discoveries.