Morphology engineering of atomic layer defect-rich CoSe2nanosheets for highly selective electrosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide

Publication Name

Journal of Materials Chemistry A

Abstract

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is widely used as a green oxidant for varying applications. Electrosynthesis is an economical and environmentally-friendly strategy to directly produce H2O2. Its practical production is hindered, however, by the lack of highly efficient and selective as well as low-cost electrocatalysts. Transition metal chalcogenide materials have been proved to be good catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction, but their selectivity towards conversion of O2to H2O2remains unsatisfactory. In this work, 3 atomic-layer defect-rich CoSe2nanosheets have been successfully grown on carbon cloth as a high performance electrocatalyst. The morphology of CoSe2can be tuned by regulating the wettability of the growth substrate. The atomic-layer CoSe2nanosheets showed unprecedented 92% selectivity towards H2O2production in alkaline solutions, and the yields of H2O2in alkaline and acidic solutions were 1227.7 mg L−1h−1and 894 mg L−1h−1, respectively. The high efficiency and selectivity originate from the rich defects in the atomic-layer CoSe2nanosheets, which can accelerate the adsorption of OOH by the exposed Co defect sites.

Open Access Status

This publication is not available as open access

Volume

9

Issue

37

First Page

21340

Last Page

21346

Funding Number

DP170101467

Funding Sponsor

Australian Research Council

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d1ta05731f