Enhanced H2O2 electrosynthesis on kneading oxidized carbon nanotubes

Electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) via two-electron pathway is a viable method to produce hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Here, oxidized carbon nanotubes (O-CNTs) rich in oxidized functional groups are obtained by rapid kneading oxidation within two hours. The optimal sample, O-CNTs-7, exhibits remarkable electrocatalytic performance for the H2O2 production under alkaline environment. The O-CNTs-7 shows a high onset potential of 0.74 V (vs. RHE), and could delivers up to 90% selectivity for H2O2 production over a wide voltage window (0.3 V to 0.7 V). In situ attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy show the certain relationship between potential and the adsorption behavior of *HOOH and *OOH, which confirm the associative two-electron pathway for O-CNTs-7. This study provides a general method to obtain highly oxidized carbon materials with abundant oxygen-containing groups towards highly efficient H2O2 electrosynthesis.