An anti-electrowetting carbon film electrode with self-sustained aeration for industrial H2O2 electrosynthesis

Lele Cui, Bin Chen, Longshun Zhang, Chen He, Chen Shu, Hongyu Kang, Jian Qiu, Wenheng Jing, Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov, Zhenghua Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

51 Scopus citations

Abstract

Electrochemical two-electron oxygen reduction represents a highly desirable and sustainable future strategy for the mass production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for applications from large-scale chemical production to portable sanitation. However, the industrial translation of this process is challenged by poor selectivity and durability due to the damaging flooding of the reactive three-phase interface of air-diffusion electrodes by rapid electrowetting under high current density operation conditions. Here, we demonstrate a concept of an anti-electrowetting carbon film electrode with self-sustained aeration by structurally discontinuously fracturing conventional planar electrocatalyst films assembled using just commercially available carbon particles. The dense through-microcracks formed in the coating-fabricated carbon black-polytetrafluoroethylene active layer counterintuitively present robust underwater hydrophobicity. This allows self-driven diffusion of oxygen from open air to the active interface, while enabling electrodes to operate at industry-relevant current densities (100-300 mA cm−2) with unprecedented selectivity (>97%) and durability (>200 h) without failure. The demonstrated anti-electrowetting carbon film with self-sustained aeration is highly promising for developing next-generation cheap and scalable metal-free electrodes for industry-scale H2O2 electrosynthesis.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)655-667
Number of pages13
JournalEnergy and Environmental Science
Volume17
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 28 Nov 2023

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