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Oxygen functional groups on carbon materials could contribute to high performance for electrochemical dechlorination of 1,2-dichloroethane to ethylene. And the C atom neighbored to C=O at armchair edge is confirmed to be the main active site with the lowest energy barrier of 0.11 eV. [Display omitted] • A series of reduced graphene oxide with varying contents of oxygen functional groups have been successfully developed. • Oxygen functional groups were found to contribute to high performance for electrochemical DCEDR. • Correlation tests indicated that C=O was the main real active component for DCEDR to ethylene. • DFT calculations indicated that C atom neighbored to C=O at armchair edge was the active site for DCEDR. Carbon materials have been widely proved to be promising electrocatalysts for 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) dechlorination reaction (DCEDR), while the significance or precise role of oxygen functional groups (OFGs) on the electrochemical reactivity has yet to be clarified. Herein, based on a sequence of reduced graphene oxide (RGOs) with varying contents of OFGs, we have found that the OFGs shown great effect on the electrochemical performance of carbon-based catalysts for DCEDR. Correlation tests indicated that the electrochemical DCEDR performance shown positive correlation only with the content of C=O, suggesting that C=O was the main real active component for DCEDR to ethylene. Further theoretical calculation results revealed that the C atom neighbored to C=O at armchair edge shown the lowest energy barrier of 0.11 eV for DCEDR, which was consistent with the result of experiment. Therefore, C atom neighbored to C=O at armchair edge was the real active site for DCEDR to ethylene. This work provides a deep understanding of the real nature of OFGs in electrocatalysis, and offers an efficient approach for rational exploitation of advanced carbon materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]