A highly efficient diatomic nickel electrocatalyst for CO2 reduction

Meng-Jiao Sun; Zhi-Wei Gong; Jun-Dong Yi; Teng Zhang; Xiaodong Chen; Rong Cao

doi:10.1039/d0cc03410j

A highly efficient diatomic nickel electrocatalyst for CO₂ reduction

Chem Commun (Camb). 2020 Aug 4;56(62):8798-8801. doi: 10.1039/d0cc03410j.

Authors

Meng-Jiao Sun¹, Zhi-Wei Gong¹, Jun-Dong Yi², Teng Zhang³, Xiaodong Chen⁴, Rong Cao³

Affiliations

¹ College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350108, China and State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China. zhangteng@fjirsm.ac.cn rcao@fjirsm.ac.cn.
² State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China. zhangteng@fjirsm.ac.cn rcao@fjirsm.ac.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, China. zhangteng@fjirsm.ac.cn rcao@fjirsm.ac.cn and University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ Innovative Centre for Flexible Devices, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore.

PMID: 32626865
DOI: 10.1039/d0cc03410j

Abstract

We report a facile but effective approach to construct a highly dispersed diatomic catalyst. A carbon-embedded diatomic Ni2 catalyst was synthesized from carbon black, polyaniline and nickel(ii) salts. The resulting catalyst exhibits excellent activity for the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) at low Ni content with a faradaic efficiency of CO over 95% in the potential range from -0.6 V to -1.0 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). A high specific current density of 37.2 A mg-1 Ni was recorded at -1.1 V, among the highest reported values for Ni-based electrocatalysts.