Kinetic Understanding of the Reduction of Oxygen to Hydrogen Peroxide over an N-Doped Carbon Electrocatalyst

Nitrogen-doped carbon catalysts for the electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) have great potential to substitute precious metal alloy catalysts for the electrochemical synthesis of H2O2, based on a fuel cell setup. Consequently, obtaining a kinetic understanding of nitrogen-doped carbon catalysts in acidic media is essential. In this study, the mathematically modified Damjanovic model and Nabae model were applied to calculate the kinetic constants for an N/C catalyst prepared from polyimide particles. The results show that the N/C catalyst has high selectivity for the two-electron reduction of O-2 making it a promising catalyst for the electrochemical production of H2O2. This study gives quantitative insight into the oxygen reduction reaction mechanism over an N/C catalyst prepared by the pyrolysis of polyimide nanoparticles.