Ni Cluster‐Decorated Single‐Atom Catalysts Achieve Near‐Unity CO <sub>2</sub> ‐to‐CO Conversion with an Ultrawide Potential Window of ≈1.7 V
Developing efficient electrocatalysts for CO<sub>2</sub> reduction to CO within a broad potential range is meaningful for cascade application integration. In this work, hydrogen spillover is created and utilized to cultivate a proton-rich environment via the simple thermolysis of a Ni-doped Zn coordination polymer (Zn CPs (Ni)) to create asymmetric Ni single atoms co-located with adjacent Ni nanoclusters on nitrogen-doped carbon, termed as Ni<sub>NC&SA</sub>/N-C, which expedites the hydrogenation of adsorbed CO<sub>2</sub>. Therefore, the sample demonstrates near-unity CO<sub>2</sub>-to-CO conversion efficiency under pH-universal conditions in ultra-wide potential windows: -0.39 to -2.05 V versus RHE with the current densities ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 A cm<sup>-2</sup> in alkaline conditions, -0.83 to -2.40 V versus RHE from 0.1 to 0.9 A cm<sup>-2</sup> in neutral environments, and -0.98 to -2.25 V versus RHE across 0.1 to 0.8 A cm<sup>-2</sup> in acid conditions. Corresponding in situ measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest that the enhanced H<sub>2</sub>O dissociation and more efficient hydrogen spillover on Ni<sub>NC&SA</sub>/N-C (compared to Ni<sub>SA</sub>/N-C) accelerate the protonation of adsorbed CO<sub>2</sub> to form *COOH intermediates. This work emphasizes the significant role of proton spillover in CO<sub>2</sub>RR, opening novel avenues for designing high-performance catalysts applicable to various electrocatalytic processes.
Authors
- Junjie Mao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0223-7119)
- Rongrong Pan
- Yun Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8661-7444)
- Wei Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7774-7685)
- Yapeng Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7059-587X)
- Jian Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8807-7349)
- Yaqian Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6032-6032)
- Qingqing Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9036-6545)
- Xi Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3196-5764)
- Ge Meng
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Wenzhou University (CN)
- Anhui Normal University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Small
- Published
- 2024-09-26
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202405367
- Citations
- 14
- Primary Topic
- CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.43
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China