O,N Co-Modulated Carbon Catalysts and Optimized Gas Diffusion Electrodes for Electrochemical H2O2 Production

The large-scale production of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) heavily relies on hydrogen supply, while traditional hydrogen storage and delivery suffer from safety risks and high cost. Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) is regarded as a promising hydrogen carrier, which can be produced on-site through a green electrochemical two-electron oxygen reduction reaction (2e – ORR). Herein, oxygen, nitrogen co-modulated carbon (O-NC) catalysts were fabricated by doping N dopants and oxygen-containing functional groups (OFGs). The pyrrolic N is revealed to jeopardize the electronic structure of the NC catalyst, and the OFGs can further regulate the NC matrix for 2e – ORR. As a result, the optimized O-NC-5 catalyst exhibits an excellent H 2 O 2 selectivity of over 80% in both alkaline and neutral electrolytes. After further optimizing Nafion content, catalyst loading, and operating conditions of O-NC-5-based gas diffusion electrodes, the assembled flow cell can deliver a high H 2 O 2 yield of 3.4 mol g cat –1 h –1 and Faradaic efficiency of above 90%, with robust stability over 12 h. This work reveals the synergistic effects of N dopants and OFGs toward 2e – ORR performance and offers a feasible strategy to develop high-performance carbon electrocatalysts and practical electrode systems for green H 2 O 2 production, which supports the SAF synthesis.