Atomic-level functionalized carbon-based materials for effective electrosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide: A review

Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) is in great demand in disinfection, bleaching, wastewater treatment and other fields. However, the traditional preparation of anthraquinone is complicated and uneconomical. Electrocatalytic two-electron oxygen reduction reaction to produce H₂O₂ (2e^- ORR) as a green way has attracted wide attention. The key to this reaction is to design the catalysts with excellent catalytic performance. Carbon-based materials with good conductivity, mass transfer, cheap economy, adjustable surface and structure, have been considered as catalysts with good potential to solve the problem of preparing large quantities of H₂O₂. Currently, atomic functionalized carbon-based materials can be divided into two main design strategies, one of which is introducing doping atoms, such as N, B and O-groups, into pure carbon materials and the other is to design single metal atoms, including d/p-block metal elements, anchored to carbon materials. Both functional carbon materials modified by different atoms have good application potential in 2e^- ORR. In this paper, we start by reviewing the relevant reports of the above two types of atomic functionalized carbon-based materials for the first time. Second, we compare the performance of the above two types of atomic functionalized carbon-based materials with respect to 2e^- ORR and find that they both have high H₂O₂ selectivity, but the latter is generally superior to the former one in the aspect of H₂O₂ yield. Finally, the current research situation and the future design directions of atomic functionalized carbon-based materials for 2e^- ORR are both summarized.