Selective H2O2 electrocatalytic generation by Cobalt@N-doped graphitic carbon core-shell nanohybrids.

Electrocatalytic oxygen reduction (ORR) is an emerging synthetic strategy to prepare hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in a sustainable fashion. N-doped graphitic carbon embedding cobalt nanoparticles is selected as an advanced material able to selectively trigger the ORR to form H2O2 with a Faraday Efficiency of almost 100% at very positive applied potentials. The production of H2O2 proceeds with high rates as calculated by bulk electrolysis (49 mmol g-1 h-1) and excellent current densities (about -0.8 mA cm-2 at 0.5 V vs RHE). The totally selective behavior depends on the combination of concomitant material features, such as the textural properties, the nature of the metal, the N type distribution, the acidic environment and the applied potential.