Release Time:2019-10-12  Hits:

Indexed by: Journal Article

Date of Publication: 2019-10-01

Journal: CARBON

Included Journals: EI、SCIE

Volume: 151

Page Number: 46-52

ISSN: 0008-6223

Key Words: Ammonia; Carbon; Carbon dioxide; Coal; Efficiency; Electrocatalysts; Electrolytic reduction; Etching; Nitrogen; Porous materials, Electro reduction; Electrocatalytic reduction; Faradaic efficiencies; Metal-free catalysts; Nitrogen-doped carbons; Porous nanostructures; Reversible hydrogen electrodes; Synergistic effect, Doping (additives)

Abstract: Efficient CO2 electroreduction over nitrogen-doped carbon catalysts has aroused tremendous interests over the past decades. However, it still remains a great challenge to develop a carbon-based electrocatalysts with high efficiency. Herein, we develop a facile and scalable ammonia etching strategy to synthesis nitrogen-doped porous carbon from earth-abundant coal as an efficient metal-free catalyst for CO2 electroreduction. Benefitting from the synergistic effect of well-developed porous nanostructure, abundant exposed nitrogen defects and proper ratio of pyridinic-N to pyrrolic-N, the coal-derived nitrogen-doped porous carbon enables efficient production of CO with a high Faradaic efficiency (92%) at -0.6 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode. The simplification of the synthesis may shed a new light on the design of N-doped porous carbon electrocatalysts. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.