A self-breathing electrode enabled by interface regulation and gradient wettability engineering for industrial H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> electrosynthesis.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41540019.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-026-68436-x and PMC identifier 12914006.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC-ND.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
High-performance gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) are essential for electrochemical H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> production, yet conventional catalyst layers (CLs) suffer from PTFE-fused encapsulation and disordered pores that create mass-transport bottlenecks and suppress three-phase interface (TPI) formation. Here, we introduce a non-fused particulate-packed catalyst/binder interface and elucidate the mechanisms governing TPI formation through 3D reconstruction and mesoscale LBM analyses. Guided by these insights, we construct a hierarchical gradient CL with ordered porosity and tunable wettability contrast, and multiscale simulations together with in-situ breakthrough and microfluidic experiments confirm capillarity-driven electrolyte displacement and directional self-transport of H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>, enabling stable Faradaic efficiencies >85% at 300 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> for 300 h. We further develop a 400 cm<sup>2</sup> four-unit self-breathing flow-through stack integrating thermal, fluidic, and electronic systems for continuous, oxygen-free, low-cost H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> generation. This work offers a fundamental design framework for advanced GDEs and demonstrates a milestone integrated self-breathing H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> electrosynthesis system with commercial viability.