Atomically dispersed Ni anchored on polymer-derived mesh-like N-doped carbon nanofibers as an efficient CO2 electrocatalytic reduction catalyst
Tai Cao, Rui Lin, Shoujie Liu, Weng‐Chon Cheong, Zhi Li, Konglin Wu, Youqi Zhu, Xiaolu Wang, Jian Zhang, Qiheng Li, Xiao Liang, Ninghua Fu, Chen Chen, Dingsheng Wang, Qing Peng, Yadong Li
Abstract
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.