Improving the yield of hydrogen peroxide on gas diffusion electrode modified with tert-butyl-anthraquinone on different carbon support. (10th October 2019) - Lu, Xiaoye
Abstract: Hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) is a green oxidant that widely used in environmental remediation and chemical industries, hence the exploration of suitable modified cathode for the cost-effective electrochemical synthesis of H2 O2 is of great importance. In this work, tert-butyl-anthraquinone (TBAQ) was attempted to modify four kinds of typical carbon materials (carbon aerogel, carbon nanotube (CNT), carbon black and graphene-doped carbon black) to fabricate gas diffusion electrode (GDE) to improve H2 O2 production for potential use in electro-Fenton process. It was found that CNT-GDE containing 2% TBAQ had the highest H2 O2 production (150.6 mg/L) with a high current efficiency (95%) and low energy consumption (2.43 kWh/(kg H2 O2 )) among four carbon materials because of the redox of TBAQ and more active sites (C–C sp 3 carbon and oxygen-containing functional groups). The effects of TBAQ addition amount, current and initial pH on H2 O2 performance were investigated. The presence of TBAQ could improve oxygen reduction activity, H2 O2 selectivity and hydrophobicity to improve H2 O2 production. Suitable current (50 mA) and initial pH benefited the enhancement in H2 O2 production. The CNT-GDE containing 2% TBAQ showed better H2 O2 production performance with good stability when comparing with literature, indicating promising for electro-Fenton application. Highlights: TBAQ was doped on four carbon materials cathode to improve electro-synthetic H2 O2 . 2% TBAQ on carbon nanotube (CNT) had the best H2 O2 performance among four cathodes. Doping TBAQ can improve H2 O2 selectivity and hydrophobicity to improve performance. Effect of current and initial pH on H2 O2 performance was investigated.