Single-Atom Zinc Sites with Synergetic Multiple Coordination Shells for Electrochemical H₂O₂ Production

Precise manipulation of the coordination environment of single-atom catalysts (SACs), particularly the simultaneous engineering of multiple coordination shells, is crucial to maximize their catalytic performance but remains challenging. Herein, we present a general two-step strategy to fabricate a series of hollow carbon-based SACs featuring asymmetric Zn−N₂O₂ moieties simultaneously modulated with S atoms in higher coordination shells of Zn centers (n≥2; designated as Zn−N₂O₂−S). Systematic analyses demonstrate that the synergetic effects between the N₂O₂ species in the first coordination shell and the S atoms in higher coordination shells lead to robust discrete Zn sites with the optimal electronic structure for selective O₂ reduction to H₂O₂. Remarkably, the Zn−N₂O₂ moiety with S atoms in the second coordination shell possesses a nearly ideal Gibbs free energy for the key OOH* intermediate, which favors the formation and desorption of OOH* on Zn sites for H₂O₂ generation. Consequently, the Zn−N₂O₂−S SAC exhibits impressive electrochemical H₂O₂ production performance with high selectivity of 96 %. Even at a high current density of 80 mA cm⁻² in the flow cell, it shows a high H₂O₂ production rate of 6.924 mol g_cat⁻¹ h⁻¹ with an average Faradaic efficiency of 93.1 %, and excellent durability over 65 h. © 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.