FeN<sub>4</sub>OC Nanoplates Covalently Bonding on Graphene for Efficient CO<sub>2</sub> Electroreduction and ZnCO<sub>2</sub> Batteries
Shan Chen, Jialei Chen, Youzeng Li, Sha Tan, Xuelong Liao, Tete Zhao, Kai Zhang, Enyuan Hu, Fangyi Cheng, Huan Wang
Abstract
Abstract Electrochemical carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) reduction into value‐added products holds great promise in moving toward carbon neutrality but remains a grand challenge due to lack of efficient electrocatalysts. Herein, the nucleophilic substitution reaction is elaborately harnessed to synthesize carbon nanoplates with a FeN 4 O configuration anchored onto graphene substrate (FeN 4 OC/Gr) through covalent linkages. Density functional theory calculations demonstrate the unique configuration of FeN 4 O with one oxygen (O) atom in the axial direction not only suppresses the competing hydrogen evolution reaction, but also facilitates the desorption of *CO intermediate compared with the commonly planar single‐atomic Fe sites. The FeN 4 OC/Gr shows excellent performance in the electroreduction of CO 2 into carbon monoxide (CO) with an impressive Faradaic efficiency of 98.3% at −0.7 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) and a high turnover frequency of 3511 h −1 . Furthermore, as a cathode catalyst in an aqueous zinc (Zn)‐CO 2 battery, the FeN 4 OC/Gr achieves a high CO Faradaic efficiency (≈91%) at a discharge current density of 3 mA cm −2 and long‐term stability over 74 h. This work opens up a new route to simultaneously modulate the geometric and electronic structure of single‐atomic catalysts toward efficient CO 2 conversion.