Elastic Ag-anchored N-doped graphene/carbon foam for the selective electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to ethanol

Electrochemical reduction of CO 2 is considered to be an efficient strategy for converting CO 2 emissions into valued-added carbon compounds. However, it often suffers from high overpotential, low product faradaic efficiency and poor selectivity for the desired products. Herein, a cost-effective met...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of materials chemistry. A, Materials for energy and sustainability Materials for energy and sustainability, 2018, Vol.6 (12), p.5025-5031
Main Authors: Lv, Kuilin, Fan, Yanchen, Zhu, Ying, Yuan, Yi, Wang, Jinrong, Zhang, Qianfan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anchors
Carbon compounds
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide emissions
Carbon monoxide
Carbonization
Catalysis
Chemical reduction
Density functional theory
Electrochemistry
Ethanol
Graphene
Intermediates
Melamine
Nanoparticles
Nitrogen
Salts
Selectivity
Silver
Structural hierarchy
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Summary:Electrochemical reduction of CO 2 is considered to be an efficient strategy for converting CO 2 emissions into valued-added carbon compounds. However, it often suffers from high overpotential, low product faradaic efficiency and poor selectivity for the desired products. Herein, a cost-effective method was designed to anchor Ag nanoparticles onto 3D graphene-wrapped nitrogen-doped carbon foam (Ag-G-NCF) by direct carbonization of melamine foam loaded with graphene oxide and silver salt. Directly acting as a high-efficiency electrode for CO 2 electrochemical reduction, the Ag-G-NCF can efficiently and preferentially convert CO 2 to ethanol with faradaic efficiencies (FEs) of 82.1–85.2% at −0.6 to −0.7 V ( vs. RHE), overcoming the usual limitation of low FE and selectivity for C2 products. Density functional theory calculations confirmed that the pyridinic N species of the Ag-G-NCF catalyst exhibited a higher bonding ability toward CO* intermediates than other N species, and that then the Ag particles gradually converted the CO* to the OC–COH intermediate of ethanol. Its excellent performance in CO 2 electroreduction can be attributed to a combination of the synergistic catalysis occurring between the pyridinic N present at high content and the Ag nanoparticles, the hierarchical macroporous structure, and the good conductivity.
ISSN:2050-7488
2050-7496
DOI:10.1039/C7TA10802H