Tobacco stem-derived nitrogen-containing porous carbon with highly dispersed Ni–N sites as an efficient electrocatalyst for CO2 reduction to CO. (24th December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Hefang; Li, Manhua; Liu, Guanghui; Yang, Lijia; Sun, Peidong; Sun, Shujuan
• Is Part Of: New journal of chemistry. Volume 45:Number 2(2021)
• Page Start: 1063
• Page End: 1071
• Publication Date: 2020-12-24
• Subjects: Chemistry -- Periodicals; Chimie -- Périodiques; 540
• DOI: 10.1039/d0nj05112h
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1144-0546

Abstract

Abstract : A cost-effective electrocatalyst with highly dispersed Ni–N sites was prepared by tobacco stem-derived nitrogen-containing porous carbon. Abstract : Electrochemical CO2 reduction is considered as a promising strategy for CO2 conversion and utilization. However, developing efficient and low-cost electrocatalysts still remains a great challenge. Herein, Ni–N@NPC was prepared using tobacco stem derived nitrogen-containing porous carbon (NPC) as a support and 1, 10 phenanthroline as a chelating agent, as well as nickel(ii ) acetate tetrahydrate as a Ni source. The prepared Ni–N@NPC has highly dispersed Ni–N sites and good CO2 adsorption capacity. Ni–N@NPC exhibits excellent electrochemical CO2 reduction property, including high faradaic efficiency for CO (about 98.44%) at a medium overpotential of 670 mV and high activity (current density approximately 30.96 mA cm −2 ), as well as durable stability over 30 hours. In addition, the Ni–N@NPC still maintains a Faraday efficiency over 90.5% at wide potentials (from −0.57 V to −0.87 V). DFT calculation reveals that Ni–N sites decrease the kinetic energy barriers for *CO2 transition to *COOH, indicating that the high electrochemical CO2 reduction activity is attributed to the Ni–N sites in electrocatalysts. This work provides a new way to develop biomass carbon materials and promote their application in energy conversion.