Nitrogen and sulfur doped mesoporous carbon cathodes for water treatment

In this paper, nitrogen and sulfur doped or co-doped mesoporous carbons (N-MC, S-MC and N,S-MC) were prepared according to a hard template approach and employed for the in situ production of H2O2. N-MC and to a lesser extent S-MC showed catalytic activity towards oxygen reduction reaction with high selectivity, up to 80%, for the production of H2O2. The possible application of doped MCs for the in situ generation of H2O2 in water treatments was confirmed by the degradation of methyl orange, which is a benchmark for degradation of pollutants, in potential controlled electrolysis in an undivided electrochemical cell, resulting in the complete degradation of the organic dye. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.