Very highly efficient reduction of CO2 to CH4 using metal-free N-doped carbon electrodes

Xiaofu Sun; Xinchen Kang; Qinggong Zhu; Jun Ma; Guanying Yang; Zhimin Liu; Buxing Han

doi:10.1039/C5SC04158A

Very highly efficient reduction of CO₂ to CH₄ using metal-free N-doped carbon electrodes†

Xiaofu Sun,^a Xinchen Kang,^a Qinggong Zhu,*^a Jun Ma,^a Guanying Yang,^a Zhimin Liu^a and Buxing Han*^a

* Corresponding authors

^a Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Colloid and Interface and Thermodynamics, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
E-mail: hanbx@iccas.ac.cn, qgzhu@iccas.ac.cn

Abstract

The electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to energy-rich chemicals is a promising pathway for energy storage and utilization. Herein we report the first work on the electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to CH₄ using metal-free electrodes. It was found that N-doped carbon (graphene-like) material/carbon paper electrodes were very efficient for the electrochemical reaction when using ionic liquids (ILs) as the electrolytes. The faradaic efficiency of CH₄ could be as high as 93.5%, which is the highest to date. The current density was about 6 times higher than that of a Cu electrode under similar conditions, which is the well-known effective electrode for the electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to CH₄. Additionally, a trace amount of water in the IL could improve the current density effectively without reducing CH₄ selectivity considerably. Our results highlight a new class of low-cost and designable electrocatalysts for synthetic fuel production from CO₂.

This article is part of the themed collection: Global Energy Challenges: Electrochemical Energy

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C5SC04158A
Article type: Edge Article
Submitted: 03 11 2015
Accepted: 15 1 2016
First published: 15 1 2016
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry

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Chem. Sci., 2016,7, 2883-2887

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Very highly efficient reduction of CO₂ to CH₄ using metal-free N-doped carbon electrodes

X. Sun, X. Kang, Q. Zhu, J. Ma, G. Yang, Z. Liu and B. Han, Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 2883 DOI: 10.1039/C5SC04158A

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