Issue 7, 2020

Breaking scaling relations for efficient CO2 electrochemical reduction through dual-atom catalysts

Abstract

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 offers an elegant solution to the current energy crisis and carbon emission issues, but the catalytic efficiency for CO2 reduction is seriously restricted by the inherent scaling relations between the adsorption energies of intermediates. Herein, by combining the concept of single-atom catalysts and multiple active sites, we design heteronuclear dual-atom catalysts to break through the stubborn restriction of scaling relations on catalytic activity. Twenty-one kinds of heteronuclear transition-metal dimers are embedded in monolayer C2N as potential dual-atom catalysts. First-principles calculations reveal that by adjusting the components of dimers, the two metal atoms play the role of carbon adsorption sites and oxygen adsorption sites respectively, which results in the decoupling of adsorption energies of key intermediates. Free energy profiles demonstrate that CO2 can be efficiently reduced to CH4 on CuCr/C2N and CuMn/C2N with low limiting potentials of −0.37 V and −0.32 V, respectively. This study suggests that the introduction of multiple active sites into porous two-dimensional materials would provide a great possibility for breaking scaling relations to achieve efficient multi-intermediate electrocatalytic reactions.

Graphical abstract: Breaking scaling relations for efficient CO2 electrochemical reduction through dual-atom catalysts

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
16 Okt. 2019
Accepted
06 Janv. 2020
First published
06 Janv. 2020
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2020,11, 1807-1813

Breaking scaling relations for efficient CO2 electrochemical reduction through dual-atom catalysts

Y. Ouyang, L. Shi, X. Bai, Q. Li and J. Wang, Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 1807 DOI: 10.1039/C9SC05236D

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