Hydrogen radical-boosted electrocatalytic CO2 reduction using Ni-partnered heteroatomic pairs

Zhibo Yao, Hao Cheng, Yifei Xu, Xinyu Zhan, Song Hong, Xinyi Tan (), Tai-Sing Wu, Pei Xiong, Yun-Liang Soo, Molly Meng-Jung Li, Leiduan Hao, Liang Xu, Alex W. Robertson, Bingjun Xu, Ming Yang () and Zhenyu Sun ()
Additional contact information
Zhibo Yao: Beijing University of Chemical Technology
Hao Cheng: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Yifei Xu: Peking University
Xinyu Zhan: Beijing University of Chemical Technology
Song Hong: Beijing University of Chemical Technology
Xinyi Tan: Beijing Key Laboratory of Environmental Science and Engineering
Tai-Sing Wu: National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center
Pei Xiong: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Yun-Liang Soo: National Tsing Hua University
Molly Meng-Jung Li: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Leiduan Hao: Beijing University of Chemical Technology
Liang Xu: Beijing University of Chemical Technology
Alex W. Robertson: University of Warwick
Bingjun Xu: Peking University
Ming Yang: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Zhenyu Sun: Beijing University of Chemical Technology

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Abstract The electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CO is slowed by the energy cost of the hydrogenation step that yields adsorbed *COOH intermediate. Here, we report a hydrogen radical (H•)-transfer mechanism that aids this hydrogenation step, enabled by constructing Ni-partnered hetero-diatomic pairs, and thereby greatly enhancing CO2-to-CO conversion kinetics. The partner metal to the Ni (denoted as M) catalyzes the Volmer step of the water/proton reduction to generate adsorbed *H, turning to H•, which reduces CO2 to carboxyl radicals (•COOH). The Ni partner then subsequently adsorbs the •COOH in an exothermic reaction, negating the usual high energy-penalty for the electrochemical hydrogenation of CO2. Tuning the H adsorption strength of the M site (with Cd, Pt, or Pd) allows for the optimization of H• formation, culminating in a markedly improved CO2 reduction rate toward CO production, offering 97.1% faradaic efficiency (FE) in aqueous electrolyte and up to 100.0% FE in an ionic liquid solution.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-53529-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-53529-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-53529-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().