Discovery of LaAlO3 as an efficient catalyst for two-electron water electrolysis towards hydrogen peroxide

ABSTRACT: Electrochemical two-electron water oxidation reaction (2e-WOR) has drawn significant attention as a promising process to achieve the continuous on-site production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). However, compared to the cathodic H2O2 generation, the anodic 2e-WOR is more challenging to establish catalysts due to the severe oxidizing environment. In this study, we combine density functional theory (DFT) calculations with experiments to discover a stable and efficient perovskite catalyst for the anodic 2e-WOR. Our theoretical screening efforts identify LaAlO3 perovskite as a stable, active, and selective candidate for catalyzing 2e-WOR. Our experimental results verify that LaAlO3 achieves an overpotential of 510 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in 4 M K2CO3/KHCO3, lower than those of many reported metal oxide catalysts. In addition, LaAlO3 maintains a stable H2O2 Faradaic efficiency with only a 3% decrease after 3 h at 2.7 V vs. RHE. This computation-experiment synergistic approach introduces another effective direction to discover promising catalysts for the harsh anodic 2e-WOR towards H2O2. Hydrogen peroxide production from water electrochemical oxidation is a challenging process. Here the authors report discovery of LaAlO3 after screening a series of perovskites as active, stable, and selective catalyst for electrochemical H2O2 production from water oxidation.

SUBMITTER: Baek J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9700689 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature