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Selective Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide to Ethanol on a Boron‐ and Nitrogen‐Co‐doped Nanodiamond
Author(s) -
Liu Yanming,
Zhang Yujing,
Cheng Kai,
Quan Xie,
Fan Xinfei,
Su Yan,
Chen Shuo,
Zhao Huimin,
Zhang Yaobin,
Yu Hongtao,
Hoffmann Michael R.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201706311
Subject(s) - nanodiamond , overpotential , selectivity , faraday efficiency , electrochemistry , electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide , chemistry , boron , inorganic chemistry , carbon dioxide , ethanol , materials science , chemical engineering , electrode , catalysis , organic chemistry , carbon monoxide , diamond , engineering
Electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to ethanol, a clean and renewable liquid fuel with high heating value, is an attractive strategy for global warming mitigation and resource utilization. However, converting CO 2 to ethanol remains great challenge due to the low activity, poor product selectivity and stability of electrocatalysts. Here, the B‐ and N‐co‐doped nanodiamond (BND) was reported as an efficient and stable electrode for selective reduction of CO 2 to ethanol. Good ethanol selectivity was achieved on the BND with high Faradaic efficiency of 93.2 % (−1.0 V vs. RHE), which overcame the limitation of low selectivity for multicarbon or high heating value fuels. Its superior performance was mainly originated from the synergistic effect of B and N co‐doping, high N content and overpotential for hydrogen evolution. The possible pathway for CO 2 reduction revealed by DFT computation was CO 2 →*COOH→*CO→*COCO→*COCH 2 OH→*CH 2 OCH 2 OH→CH 3 CH 2 OH.