Enhanced electrochemical CO₂ reduction performance of cobalt phthalocyanine with precise regulation of electronic states

Herein, we report a facile strategy for constructing hybrid coordination configurations by combining functionalized graphene quantum dots (GQDs) with CoPc (CoPc/R-GQDs, with R being –NH₂ or –OH) for electrochemical CO₂ reduction. Benefiting from the high density of functional groups that can be provided by GQDs and the strong electron-donating property of –NH₂, the examined CoPc/NH₂-GQDs achieved a 100% faradaic efficiency for CO formation (FE_CO) at −0.8 to −0.9 V vs. RHE, and high FE_CO (over 90%) over a wide potential range of 500 mV. This work has presented a novel approach for catalyst design, specifically involving molecular engineering of quantum dots, which can also be applied to other essential electrochemical reactions.