Fullerene-derived boron-doped defective nanocarbon for highly selective H2O2 electrosynthesis

Electrochemical production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) via the two-electron (2e−) pathway of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) supplies an auspicious alternative to the current industrial anthraquinone process. Nonetheless, it still lacks efficient electrocatalysts to achieve high ORR activity together with 2e− selectivity simultaneously. Herein, a boron-doped defective nanocarbon (B-DC) electrocatalyst is synthesized by using fullerene frameworks as the precursor and boric oxide as the boron source. The obtained B-DC materials have a hierarchical porous structure, befitting boron dopants, and abundant topological pentagon defects, exhibiting a high ORR onset potential of 0.78 V and a dominated 2e− selectivity (over 95