Enhanced Ethanol Production from CO2 Electroreduction at Micropores in Nitrogen-Doped Mesoporous Carbon

Abstract

Efficient formation of valuable multicarbon products in CO₂ electrochemical reduction is challenging, owing to the difficulty of C-C coupling. Medium micropores embedded in the channel walls of nitrogen-doped ordered mesoporous carbon are found to capably promote ethanol production from CO₂ electroreduction. By scaling up the medium micropore content, the yield of ethanol is increased to 2.3 mmol g_cat ^-1 h^-1 , far outperforming previously reported state-of-the-art electrocatalysts. The intrinsically higher activity is attributed to the desolvation effect induced by the medium micropores, facilitating the coupling reaction of C₁ intermediates to form ethanol.

Keywords: CO2 electroreduction; N-doped carbon; desolvation; ethanol; microporous materials.