Optimization and scaling-up of porous solid electrolyte electrochemical reactors for hydrogen peroxide electrosynthesis

Effects of PSE on H₂O₂ electrosynthesis

PSE microspheres packed in the middle layer of the PES reactor play a critical role for ion conduction along their interconnected surfaces and for water flowing through their interparticle space during H₂O₂ electrosynthesis⁹. Therefore, it is expected that the properties of PSE microspheres (e.g., ion conductivity and particle size) can significantly influence H₂O₂ electrosynthesis, which however has not been well explored previously. In this study, we first compared several commercial PSEs that had been used as ion conductors for H₂O₂ electrosynthesis and other electrochemical processes (e.g., CO₂ electro-reduction and electrodeionization)^9,11,14,15. These PSE microspheres are all made of styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer and functionalized with sulfonic acid (SA) groups, but have different ion exchange capacity and specific surface areas (see Table 1 for the characterization results). For the…