Self-Powered and Highly Efficient Production of H2O2 through a Zn–Air Battery with Oxygenated Carbon Electrocatalyst

Industrially producing H₂O₂ consumes lots of energy and generates byproducts. For the first time, we demonstrate the non-energy-consuming, self-powered production of H₂O₂ based on a Zn-air battery with oxygenated carbon electrocatalyst. The battery with power density of 360 W m_geo^-2 at a operating voltage of 0.8 V exhibited high H₂O₂ production rate of 5.93 mol m_geo^-2 h^-1. By tuning the ratio of the oxygen-containg groups, the origin of the high activity was investigated. Combining the DFT calculations, we found that C-O-C and -CHO contribute more to the H₂O₂ production compared to other functional groups.