Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2) synthesis by electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction has attracted great attention as a green substitute for anthraquinone process. However, low oxygen utilization efficiency (<1%) and high energy consumption remain obstacles. Herein we propose a superhydrophobic natural air diffusion electrode (NADE) to greatly improve the oxygen diffusion coefficient at the cathode about 5.7 times as compared to the normal gas diffusion electrode (GDE) system. NADE allows the oxygen to be naturally diffused to the reaction interface, eliminating the need to pump oxygen/air to overcome the resistance of the gas diffusion layer, resulting in fast H 2 O 2 production (101.67 mg h-1 cm-2) with a high oxygen utilization efficiency (44.5%-64.9%). Long-term operation stability of NADE and its high current efficiency under high current density indicate great potential to replace normal GDE for H 2 O 2 electrosynthesis and environmental remediation on an industrial scale.
The development of an efficient oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) cathode for hydrogen peroxide production represents an important challenge in the field of electrochemical processes and is highly demanded for chemical industries and environmental remediation applications.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.