Issue 4, 2016

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

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.

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

Supplementary files

Article information

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
Creative Commons BY license

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

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

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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