Due to environmentally friendly operation and on-site productivity, electrocatalytic singlet oxygen (¹O₂) production via O₂ gas is of immense interest in environment purification. However, the side-on configuration of O₂ on the catalysts surface will lead to the formation of H₂O, which seriously limits the selectivity and activity of ¹O₂ production. Herein, we show a robust N-doped CuO (N–CuO) with Pauling-type (end-on) adsorption of O₂ at the N–Cu–O₃ sites for the selective generation of ¹O₂ under direct-current electric field. We propose that Pauling-type configuration of O₂ not only lowers the overall activation energy barrier, but also alters the reaction pathway to form ¹O₂ instead of H₂O, which is the key feature determining selectivity for the dissociation of Cu–O bonds rather than the O–O bonds. The proposed N dopant strategy is applicable to a series of transition metal oxides, providing a universal electrocatalysts design scheme for existing high-performance electrocatalytic ¹O₂ production.

由于环境友好的操作和现场生产力，通过O _{2气体产生的电催化单线态氧（} ¹ O ₂ ）在环境净化中具有极大的兴趣。_{然而，O 2}在催化剂表面的侧向构型会导致H ₂ O的形成，严重限制了¹ O ₂生产的选择性和活性。在此，我们展示了一种稳健的 N 掺杂 CuO (N-CuO)，在 N-Cu-O ₃位点具有鲍林型（端接）吸附 O ₂用于选择性生成¹ O ₂在直流电场下。_{我们提出 O 2}的鲍林型构型不仅降低了整体活化能垒，而且改变了反应途径以形成¹ O ₂而不是 H ₂ O，这是决定 Cu-O 解离选择性的关键特征键而不是 O-O 键。所提出的N掺杂策略适用于一系列过渡金属氧化物，为现有的高性能电催化¹ O ₂生产提供了通用的电催化剂设计方案。