Highly Selective and Stable Reduction of CO2 to CO by a Graphitic Carbon Nitride/Carbon Nanotube Composite Electrocatalyst

Xunyu Lu; Tze Hao Tan; Yun Hau Ng; Rose Amal

doi:10.1002/chem.201601674

Highly Selective and Stable Reduction of CO2 to CO by a Graphitic Carbon Nitride/Carbon Nanotube Composite Electrocatalyst

Chemistry. 2016 Aug 16;22(34):11991-6. doi: 10.1002/chem.201601674. Epub 2016 Jul 12.

Authors

Xunyu Lu¹, Tze Hao Tan¹, Yun Hau Ng¹, Rose Amal²

Affiliations

¹ Particles and Catalysis Research Group, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia.
² Particles and Catalysis Research Group, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia. r.amal@unsw.edu.au.

PMID: 27312815
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201601674

Abstract

A stable and selective electrocatalyst for CO2 reduction was fabricated by covalently attaching graphitic carbon nitride onto multiwall carbon nanotubes (g-C3 N4 /MWCNTs). The as-prepared composite is able to reduce CO2 exclusively to CO with a maximum Faraday efficiency of 60 %, and no decay in the catalytic activity was observed even after 50 h of reaction. The enhanced catalytic activity towards CO2 reduction is attributed to the formation of active carbon-nitrogen bonds, high specific surface area, and improved material conductivity of the g-C3 N4 /MWCNT composite.

Keywords: CO2 reduction; active sites; electrocatalysis; graphitic carbon nitride; multiwall carbon nanotubes.