Atomically dispersed Ni anchored on polymer-derived mesh-like N-doped carbon nanofibers as an efficient CO2 electrocatalytic reduction catalyst

• Published in: Nano research Vol. 15; no. 5; pp. 3959 - 3963
• Main Authors: Cao, Tai, Lin, Rui, Liu, Shoujie, Cheong, Weng-Chon Max, Li, Zhi, Wu, Konglin, Zhu, Youqi, Wang, Xiaolu, Zhang, Jian, Li, Qiheng, Liang, Xiao, Fu, Ninghua, Chen, Chen, Wang, Dingsheng, Peng, Qing, Li, Yadong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Tsinghua University Press 01.05.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Atomic/Molecular Structure and Spectra; Biomedicine; Biotechnology; Carbon cycle; Carbon dioxide; Carbon fibers; Catalysts; Chemical reduction; Chemistry and Materials Science; Climate change; Condensed Matter Physics; Dispersion; Electrocatalysts; Electrowinning; Greenhouse gases; Materials Science; Nanofibers; Nanotechnology; Polymers; Research Article; Selectivity; Self-assembly; self-assembly; reduction reaction; Ni-N; site; CO; Ni single atoms
• ISSN: 1998-0124; 1998-0000
• DOI: 10.1007/s12274-022-4076-1

Efficient electroreduction of CO 2 into CO and other chemicals turns greenhouse gases into fuels and value-added chemicals, holding great promise for a closed carbon cycle and the alleviation of climate changes. However, there are still challenges in the large-scale application of CO 2 electroreduction due to the sluggish kinetics. Herein we develop a self-assembly strategy to synthesize a highly efficient CO 2 reduction electrocatalyst with atomically dispersed Ni-N 4 active centers anchored on polymer-derived mesh-like N-doped carbon nanofibers (Ni-N 4 /NC). The Ni-N 4 /NC exhibits high selectivity for CO 2 reduction reaction with CO Faradaic efficiency (CO FE) above 90% over a wide potential range from −0.6 to −1.0 V vs. RHE. The catalyst reaches a maximum CO FE up to 98.4% at −0.8 V with a TOF of 1.28 × 10 5 h −1 and Tafel slope of 113 mV·dec −1 . The catalyst also exhibits remarkable stability, with little change in current density and CO FE over a 10-hour durability test at −0.8 V vs. RHE. This method provides a new route for the synthesis of highly efficient CO 2 reduction electrocatalyst.