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Wide Potential CO 2 ‐to‐CO Electroreduction Relies on Pyridinic‐N/Ni–N x Sites and Its Zn–CO 2 Battery Application
Author(s) -
Zeng Zipeng,
Mohamed Aya Gomaa Abdelkader,
Zhang Xiang,
Wang Yaobing
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
energy technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 2194-4296
pISSN - 2194-4288
DOI - 10.1002/ente.202100205
Subject(s) - overpotential , electrocatalyst , faraday efficiency , battery (electricity) , catalysis , materials science , metal , aqueous solution , electrochemistry , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , electrode , thermodynamics , physics , organic chemistry , metallurgy , power (physics) , engineering
Although metal–N‐doped carbons are promising electrocatalysts for CO 2 ‐to‐CO conversion due to their high conversion efficiency and current density, their commercial application is still challenging due to their narrow potential/current range. In general, a wide potential/current electrocatalyst is in high demand for industrial CO 2 electrocatalysis. Controllable strategy to tune N configurations toward pyridinic‐enriched metal–N x active sites is attractive. The synergetic effect of the ability of pyridinic N to capture Lewis acidic CO 2 and the characteristics of Ni–N active sites to inhibit the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) can achieve a wide potential window, which has high practical value. Herein, the well‐chosen precursors resulting in a pyridinic‐enriched Ni–N x site can selectively catalyze CO 2 toward CO generation in aqueous media with a high Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 100% with an overpotential of 680 mV. Continuous CO FE > 90% was recorded under a wide range of potentials without decay. Motivated by its practical characteristics in CO 2 electrocatalysts, a Zn–CO 2 battery is assembled achieving a CO 2 –CO conversion efficiency of more than 90% in a wide discharge current window. Therefore, the results highlight that pyridinic‐enriched Ni–N x holds great promise as simultaneous CO‐selective electrocatalyst by suitably tuning M–N configurations as new perspective strategy.