Built‐in Axial Electric Field‐Driven Electron‐Rich Monomolecular Co Sites for Promoting CO <sub>2</sub> Electroreduction to CO Over Ultrawide Potential Window
Using renewable electricity to convert CO<sub>2</sub> into CO offers a sustainable route to producing a versatile intermediate to synthesize various chemicals and fuels. However, the conversion at scale is largely constrained owing to the lack of potential-universal feasibility. Here, we developed an electrocatalyst featuring CoPc anchored ZnO with rich oxygen vacancies (CoPc@ZnO<sub>v</sub>), thus improving the activity and selectivity of CO<sub>2</sub>-to-CO conversion. Notably, the FEco of CoPc@ZnO<sub>v</sub> remains above 90% over an ultrawide potential window of 1.3 V (-0.7 to -2.0 V versus RHE) in H-type cell, 1.40 V (-0.4 to -1.8 V versus RHE) in flow cell and 1.0 V (low cell voltages of 2.0-3.0 V) in the MEA device, surpassing those of previously reported molecular CoPc-based electrocatalysts and even most single metal site materials. Density functional theory calculations combined with in-situ spectroscopies reveal that the built-in axial electric field arising from the p-n junction rectification effect could drive electron-rich single Co-N<sub>4</sub> sites with asymmetric charge distribution and geometric curvature, which promotes *COOH formation (i.e., strong CO<sub>2</sub> adsorption, rapid H<sub>2</sub>O dissociation and proton supply), *CO desorption and as well suppresses the hydrogen evolution reaction, thus favoring the production of CO via CO<sub>2</sub>RR over ultrawide potential windows. This work presents a novel catalyst design strategy of asymmetrical monomolecular Co-N<sub>4</sub> sites based on the built-in axial electric field theory, as well as a new way to tune the out-of-plane polarization for improved catalytic performance.
Authors
- Botao Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3496-2083)
- Caiyue Wang
- Jiatao Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7414-4902)
- Xiaoran Su
- Lirong Zheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6803-5048)
- Di Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7882-2966)
- Yingzheng Zhang
- Chen Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5902-3037)
- Chuhao Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0691-6791)
Institutions
- Beijing Institute of Technology (CN)
- China Academy of Space Technology (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (FR)
- Fuzhou University (CN)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2025-10-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202511671
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.82