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Ni-Cu bimetallic alloy anchored on nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes for CO2-to-CH4 electrochemical conversion

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Abstract

Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to CH4 remains challenging due to multi-electron transfer and intermediates adsorption. Herein, we synthesized electrocatalysts by growing Ni-Cu alloy structure on nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (NixCuy-NCNT) for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) via hydrothermal method followed by pyrolysis. The optimized Ni1Cu1-NCNT demonstrated a superior CO2RR performance, achieving 99.7% \(\text{FE}_{\text{CH}_{4}}\) (FE = Faradaic efficiency) and 11.54 mA • cm−2 current density at −1.2 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), which outperformed single metal counterparts. Its outstanding performance was due to the electrons transferred from Cu to Ni and Ni-Cu alloy shifted the d-band center toward the Fermi level, which was more conducive to the intermediate formation. In situ electrochemical attenuated total reflection (EC-ATR) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed the appearance of *CHO intermediate and the pathway during the CO2RR process. The design of the bimetallic electrocatalyst in this study provides a new perspective for the highly selective reduction of CO2.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52170065).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, Beijing Key Laboratory of Aqueous Typical Pollutants Control and Water Quality Safeguard, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China

    Jing Li & Jin Wang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Jing Li & Chuanyong Jing

  3. Tangshan Research Institute, Beijing Jiaotong University, Tangshan, 063000, China

    Jin Wang

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  1. Jing Li
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Correspondence to Jin Wang.

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Li, J., Jing, C. & Wang, J. Ni-Cu bimetallic alloy anchored on nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes for CO2-to-CH4 electrochemical conversion. Nano Res. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-024-6694-2

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