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CO2 reduction with coin catalyst

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Abstract

Most organic commodity chemicals are derived from fossil carbon resources. The dependency is so immense that it is difficult to compensate for the accompanying carbon footprint with current technology and chemical infrastructure. To mitigate the future fossil fuel usage, it is crucial to explore alternative chemical pathways, which are both sustainable and suitable for large-scale productions. Here we demonstrate a closed-loop carbon-neutral chemical route, using standard coin catalyst, to produce high concentrated formate and formic acid. The catalyst’s Faradaic efficiency (FE) of formate is ∼ 95.3% with great durability. The chemicals are not only synthesized but also purified and utilized in zero-carbon scenarios. We successfully harvested 45% formate salt and 86.2% formic acid, for applications like anti-freezing reagent and green liquid fuel to power the fuel-cell vehicles.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21771040 and 62074043), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Nos. 2017YFA0207303 and 2016YFA0203900).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Taishi Xiao, Can Tang, Hongbin Li, Tong Ye, Kun Ba, Peng Gong & Zhengzong Sun

  2. School of Microelectronics and State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Zhengzong Sun

Authors
  1. Taishi Xiao
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  2. Can Tang
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  3. Hongbin Li
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  4. Tong Ye
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  5. Kun Ba
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  6. Peng Gong
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  7. Zhengzong Sun
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Contributions

T. X. and Z. S. conceived the project, analyzed the data and wrote the paper. T. X. prepared all the coin catalysts. T. X. and C. T. performed the CO2RR including the liquid products evaluation and analyzed the gas products. T. X. and H. Li. contributed to the solar salt, pure formic acid preparation, and characterizations of material. Z. S. supervised all research phases and revised the manuscript. All authors read and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zhengzong Sun.

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Xiao, T., Tang, C., Li, H. et al. CO2 reduction with coin catalyst. Nano Res. 15, 3859–3865 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3990-y

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