Electronic structure modification of metal phthalocyanines by a carbon nanotube support for efficient oxygen reduction to hydrogen peroxide

Abstract

An active and selective two-electron oxygen reduction reaction (2e⁻ ORR) is required for efficient electrosynthesis of H₂O₂. This reaction can be promoted by metal phthalocyanines (MPcs), which serve as model catalysts with well-defined structures. MPc molecules have mostly been evaluated on conductive carbon-based substrates, including glassy carbon (GC) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs), yet their influence on the electrocatalytic properties is not well understood. This study demonstrated that the ORR activity per surface area was improved by up to 4-fold with MPc molecules supported on CNTs (MPc/CNTs, M = Co, Mn, and Fe) compared to MPc loaded directly on GC. Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations revealed that the CNTs modified the electronic structure of the MPc molecules to optimize the *OOH binding energy and boost the heterogeneous electron transfer rates. Detailed kinetic analysis enabled multiple reaction pathways to be decoupled to extract the metal-dependent intrinsic 2e⁻/4e⁻ ORR activities. Finally, MPc/CNT catalysts were employed in an H₂O₂ electrosynthesis flow cell, which delivered an industrial-scale current density of −200 mA cm⁻² and an H₂O₂ faradaic efficiency of 88.7 ± 0.6% with the CoPc/CNT catalyst in a neutral electrolyte.