Transforming CO Poisoning into a Critical Step for Electrocatalytic C─N Coupling to Urea in a Carbon‐Dot‐Dominated Nanoreactor
Modern catalysis science has traditionally viewed carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning negatively due to its detrimental effects, such as the deactivation of metal sites. Here, we demonstrate a transformative approach by converting CO poisoning into a beneficial strategy to achieve high activity and selectivity in urea electrosynthesis. We designed a multiscale and multisite nanoreactor composed of copper-carbon dots (Cu-CDs) and bornite (Cu<sub>5</sub>FeS<sub>4</sub>), which exploits CO-poisoned iron sites as anchors to facilitate efficient multi-species integration. This nanoreactor configuration delivers an unprecedented C<sub>urea</sub> - selectivity of 100%, a high urea yield rate of 1131.84 µg h<sup>-1</sup> mg<sub>cat</sub> <sup>-1</sup> and a Faradaic efficiency of 42.35% at an ultra-low potential. Consequently, the catalyst achieves exceptional dual benefits of a high yield rate and low energy consumption of 31.18 kWh kg<sub>urea</sub> <sup>-1</sup>, outperforming all previously reported earth-abundant electrocatalysts. Mechanistic studies and theoretical calculations reveal that the strong interaction between Fe and *CO, coupled with spatially separated yet adjacent Fe, Cu<sub>1</sub>, and Cu<sub>2</sub> sites, enables stepwise conversion from *CO to *CONH<sub>2</sub> and subsequently to *CO(NH<sub>2</sub>)<sub>2</sub> within the nano-confined space dominated by Cu-CDs. This work provides a groundbreaking catalyst design strategy by effectively harnessing CO poisoning for enhanced electrocatalytic performance.
Authors
- Baodong Mao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9164-9176)
- Haitao Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1265-5835)
- Qitao Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0326-924X)
- Weidong Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1123-8191)
- Yanhong Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6999-7062)
- Zhenhui Kang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6989-5840)
- Deli Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8409-7772)
- Wei Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9756-9994)
- Lei Xing (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0360-8025)
- Dongxu Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4240-636X)
- Hui Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9053-9426)
Institutions
- Macau University of Science and Technology (MO)
- Jiangsu University (CN)
- University of Surrey (GB)
- Soochow University (CN)
- Zero to Three (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2025-08-10
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202511259
- Citations
- 9
- Primary Topic
- Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.27
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Government of Jiangsu Province
- Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province
- State Key Laboratory of Catalysis
- Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project
- National Key Research and Development Program of China