Greatly Facilitated Two-Electron Electroreduction of Oxygen into Hydrogen Peroxide over TiO2 by Mn Doping

Ambient electrochemical oxygen reduction into valuable hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) via a selective two-electron (2e–) pathway is regarded as a sustainable alternative to the industrial anthraquinone process, but it requires advanced electrocatalysts with high activity and selectivity. In this study, we report that Mn-doped TiO2 behaves as an efficient electrocatalyst toward highly selective H2O2 synthesis. This catalyst exhibits markedly enhanced 2e– oxygen reduction reaction performance with a low onset potential of 0.78 V and a high H2O2 selectivity of 92.7%, much superior to the pristine TiO2 (0.64 V, 62.2%). Additionally, it demonstrates a much improved H2O2 yield of up to 205 ppm h–1 with good stability during bulk electrolysis in an H-cell device. The significantly boosted catalytic performance is ascribed to the lattice distortion of Mn-doped TiO2 with a large amount of oxygen vacancies and Ti3+. Density functional theory calculations reveal that Mn dopant improves the electrical conductivity and reduces ΔG*OOH of pristine TiO2, thus giving rise to a highly efficient H2O2 production process.