Facile synthesis of N-doping carbon-encapsulated metal catalyst for CO2 electroreduction to CO

Electrocatalysis of CO 2 to CO is not only conducive to the artificial carbon cycle, but also green and efficient technology for producing chemicals. In consideration of the practical application, the novel strategy for large-scale preparation of catalyst has great potential to be developed. Herein, a facile one-step approach was developed for constructing a group of N -doping carbon-encapsulated metal catalysts (M@N C (M = Fe, Co, and Ni)) for CO 2 electroreduction to CO. In addition, the impact of metal on catalytic performance was detailedly researched. Specifically, the Ni@N C catalyst achieves an excessive CO Faraday efficiency (FE CO ) (>90 %) on a broad achievable potential window of − 0.67 V to − 0.97 V vs RHE in the H-type cell. The optimal catalyst attains a FE CO of 98 % at − 0.57 V vs RHE and an industrial-relevant current density of 430 mA cm −2 at − 1.07 V vs RHE in the flow cell. This work provides a facile way to fabricate catalyst on a large scale with preeminent performance for industrial CO 2 electroreduction to CO.