Pinpointing carbonyl on pentagon defect for H2O2 electrosynthesis

Defective carbon materials have emerged as promising candidates for the electrocatalysis of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) to selectively produce H₂O₂. However, distinguishing the roles of oxygenates and carbon defects in carbon for 2e- ORR remains to be challenging. In a recent issue of Nature Communications, Yao and coworkers pinpointed the major active sites in oxygenated carbon materials and identified the key intermediate employing a series of dynamic and simulation techniques. In addition to highlight the proposed work, this comment article also discussed pioneering methodologies to characterize structure dynamics and probe the integral active center for rational design of carbon based catalysts with atomic precision.