Metal single-site catalyst design for electrocatalytic production of hydrogen peroxide at industrial-relevant currents

Direct hydrogen peroxide electrosynthesis offers a sustainable alternative to the traditional energy-intensive anthraquinone technology. Here, the authors report a scalable cobalt single-site catalyst for hydrogen peroxide synthesis at industrial-relevant currents in acidic, neutral or alkaline electrolyte. Direct hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) electrosynthesis via the two-electron oxygen reduction reaction is a sustainable alternative to the traditional energy-intensive anthraquinone technology. However, high-performance and scalable electrocatalysts with industrial-relevant production rates remain to be challenging, partially due to insufficient atomic level understanding in catalyst design. Here we utilize theoretical approaches to identify transition-metal single-site catalysts for two-electron oxygen reduction using the *OOH binding energy as a descriptor. The theoretical predictions are then used as guidance to synthesize the desired cobalt single-site catalyst with a O-modified Co-(pyrrolic N)(4) configuration that can achieve industrial-relevant current densities up to 300 mA cm(-)(2) with 96-100% Faradaic efficiencies for H2O2 production at a record rate of 11,527 mmol h(-)(1) g(cat)(-)(1). Here, we show the feasibility and versatility of metal single-site catalyst design using various commercial carbon and cobalt phthalocyanine as starting materials and the high applicability for H2O2 electrosynthesis in acidic, neutral and alkaline electrolytes.

Automated summary

The authors report a scalable cobalt single-site catalyst for hydrogen peroxide synthesis at industrial-relevant currents in acidic, neutral or alkaline electrolyte, providing a sustainable alternative to traditional anthraquinone technology.