ja9b12111_si_001.pdf (2.29 MB)
Stable and Efficient Single-Atom Zn Catalyst for CO2 Reduction to CH4
journal contribution
posted on 2020-06-23, 23:29 authored by Lili Han, Shoujie Song, Mingjie Liu, Siyu Yao, Zhixiu Liang, Hao Cheng, Zhouhong Ren, Wei Liu, Ruoqian Lin, Gaocan Qi, Xijun Liu, Qin Wu, Jun Luo, Huolin L. XinThe development of highly active
and durable catalysts for electrochemical
reduction of CO2 (ERC) to CH4 in aqueous media
is an efficient and environmentally friendly solution to address global
problems in energy and sustainability. In this work, an electrocatalyst
consisting of single Zn atoms supported on microporous N-doped carbon
was designed to enable multielectron transfer for catalyzing ERC to
CH4 in 1 M KHCO3 solution. This catalyst exhibits
a high Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 85%, a partial current density
of −31.8 mA cm–2 at a potential of −1.8
V versus saturated calomel electrode, and remarkable stability, with
neither an obvious current drop nor large FE fluctuation observed
during 35 h of ERC, indicating a far superior performance than that
of dominant Cu-based catalysts for ERC to CH4. Theoretical
calculations reveal that single Zn atoms largely block CO generation
and instead facilitate the production of CH4.