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Nitrogen-carbon layer coated nickel nanoparticles for efficient electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide

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Abstract

The application of nickel in electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 has been largely restricted by side reaction (hydrogen evolution reaction) and catalyst poisoning. Here we report a new strategy to improve the electrocatalytic performance of nickel for CO2 reduction by employing a nitrogen-carbon layer for nickel nanoparticles. Such a nickel electrocatalyst exhibits high Faradaic efficiency 97.5% at relatively low potential of -0.61 V for the conversion of CO2 to CO. Density functional theory calculation reveals that it is thermodynamically accomplishable for the reduction product CO to be removed from the catalyst surface, thus avoiding catalyst poisoning. Also, the catalyst renders hydrogen evolution reaction to be suppressed and hence reasonably improves catalytic performance.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21525316, 21802146, and 21673254), Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2017YFA0403003), Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. QYZDY-SSW-SLH013), and Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (No. Z181100004218004).

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  1. Dongxing Tan and Chaonan Cui contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Colloid, Interface and Chemical Thermodynamics, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Dongxing Tan, Jinbiao Shi, Bingxing Zhang, Xiuniang Tan, Buxing Han & Jianling Zhang

  2. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Chaonan Cui & Zhixun Luo

  3. School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Dongxing Tan, Chaonan Cui, Jinbiao Shi, Zhixun Luo, Bingxing Zhang, Xiuniang Tan, Buxing Han & Jianling Zhang

  4. Beijng Synchrotron Radiation Facility (BSRF), Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Lirong Zheng & Jing Zhang

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  1. Dongxing Tan
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  2. Chaonan Cui
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  3. Jinbiao Shi
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Correspondence to Zhixun Luo or Jianling Zhang.

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Tan, D., Cui, C., Shi, J. et al. Nitrogen-carbon layer coated nickel nanoparticles for efficient electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide. Nano Res. 12, 1167–1172 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-019-2372-1

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