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Research Article

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

Tai Cao1, Rui Lin1, Shoujie Liu2, Weng-Chon (Max) Cheong3, Zhi Li1(), Konglin Wu2, Youqi Zhu4, Xiaolu Wang1, Jian Zhang1, Qiheng Li1, Xiao Liang1, Ninghua Fu1, Chen Chen1, Dingsheng Wang1, Qing Peng1, Yadong Li1()
Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China
Department of Physics and Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China
Research Center of Materials Science, Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
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A self-assembly strategy was developed to synthesize a highly efficient CO2 reduction electrocatalyst with atomically dispersed Ni active centers anchored on polymer-derived mesh-like N-doped carbon nanofibers.

Abstract

Efficient electroreduction of CO2 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 CO2 electroreduction due to the sluggish kinetics. Herein we develop a self-assembly strategy to synthesize a highly efficient CO2 reduction electrocatalyst with atomically dispersed Ni-N4 active centers anchored on polymer-derived mesh-like N-doped carbon nanofibers (Ni-N4/NC). The Ni-N4/NC exhibits high selectivity for CO2 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 x 105 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 CO2 reduction electrocatalyst.

Keywords

CO2 reduction reaction Ni-N4 site Ni single atomsself-assembly

Electronic Supplementary Material

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Nano Research
Volume 15 Issue 5,
May 2022
Pages 3959-3963
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-022-4076-1
Cite this article:
Cao T, Lin R, Liu S, et al. Atomically dispersed Ni anchored on polymer-derived mesh-like N-doped carbon nanofibers as an efficient CO2 electrocatalytic reduction catalyst. Nano Research, 2022, 15(5): 3959-3963. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4076-1
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