CO₂ Laser-Induced Graphene with an Appropriate Oxygen Species as an Efficient Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Peroxide...

Oxygen species functionalized graphene (O-G) is an effective electrocatalyst for electrochemically synthesizing hydrogen peroxide (H₂ O₂ ) by a 2 e^- oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The type of oxygen species and degree of carbon crystallinity in O-G are two key factors for the high catalytic performance of the 2 e^- ORR. However, the general preparing method of O-G by the precursor of graphite has the disadvantages of consuming massive strong oxidant and washing water. Herein, the biomass-based graphene with tunable oxygen species is rapidly fabricated by a CO₂ laser. In a flow cell setup, the laser-induced graphene (LIG) with abundant active oxygen species and graphene structure shows high catalytic performance including high Faraday efficiency (over 78 %) and high mass activity (814 mmolg_catalyst ^-1  h^-1 ), superior to most of the reported carbon-based electrocatalysts. Density function theory demonstrates the meta-C atoms at nearby C-O, O-C=O species are the key catalytic sites. Therefore, we develop one facile method to rapidly convert biomass to graphene electrocatalyst used for H₂ O₂ synthesis.