Renewable and metal-free carbon nanofibre catalysts for carbon dioxide reduction

Bijandra Kumar (), Mohammad Asadi, Davide Pisasale, Suman Sinha-Ray, Brian A. Rosen, Richard Haasch, Jeremiah Abiade, Alexander L. Yarin and Amin Salehi-Khojin ()
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Bijandra Kumar: University of Illinois at Chicago
Mohammad Asadi: University of Illinois at Chicago
Davide Pisasale: University of Illinois at Chicago
Suman Sinha-Ray: University of Illinois at Chicago
Brian A. Rosen: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Richard Haasch: Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Jeremiah Abiade: University of Illinois at Chicago
Alexander L. Yarin: University of Illinois at Chicago
Amin Salehi-Khojin: University of Illinois at Chicago

Nature Communications, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract The development of an efficient catalyst system for the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide into energy-rich products is a major research topic. Here we report the catalytic ability of polyacrylonitrile-based heteroatomic carbon nanofibres for carbon dioxide reduction into carbon monoxide, via a metal-free, renewable and cost-effective route. The carbon nanofibre catalyst exhibits negligible overpotential (0.17 V) for carbon dioxide reduction and more than an order of magnitude higher current density compared with the silver catalyst under similar experimental conditions. The carbon dioxide reduction ability of carbon nanofibres is attributed to the reduced carbons rather than to electronegative nitrogen atoms. The superior performance is credited to the nanofibrillar structure and high binding energy of key intermediates to the carbon nanofibre surfaces. The finding may lead to a new generation of metal-free and non-precious catalysts with much greater efficiency than the existing noble metal catalysts.

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3819

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