Electrochemical analysis of photoelectro-, electro-, and thermal catalysis towards more efficient hydrogen peroxide production

Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical with growing industrial relevance but is plagued with high production costs. There are several compelling alternatives to produce H2O2, and most revolve around the 2-electron oxygen reduction reaction. There is a large amount of foundational research on the mechanisms and theoretical aspects of electrochemically reducing oxygen to form H2O2, but this production method remains to be implemented on the industrial scale due to a lack of effective catalysts. Explored here are alternative H2O2 production methods involving the 2-electron reduction of O2. Specifically, photoelectrochemical, electrocatalytic, and thermal catalytic methods are investigated further to draw out necessary catalyst properties and design parameters for producing H2O2. Each catalytic system is analyzed under the lens of electrochemically detecting H2O2 that is catalytically produced. Electrochemical analysis of these catalytic systems provides the added advantage of being able to utilize high throughput screening techniques to quickly discover and test novel catalyst compositions. Optimal catalyst design parameters are identified for each H2O2 production method and these parameters can be assessed over several catalyst compositions through high throughput electrochemical screening. The research presented here acts as a basis for further improvements onto these already compelling H2O2 production methods