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Research Article

Intrinsic defects in biomass-derived carbons facilitate electroreduction of CO2

Mengjie Chen1, Shuai Wang1, Haiyan Zhang1, Ping Zhang1, Ziqi Tian2( ), Min Lu1( ), Xiaoji Xie1( ), Ling Huang1, Wei Huang1,3
Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics (KLOFE), Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing 211816, China
Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
Shaanxi Institute of Flexible Electronics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
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Abstract

Developing efficient carbon-based metal-free electrocatalysts can bridge the gap between laboratory studies and practical applications of CO2 reduction. However, along with the ambiguous understanding of the active sites in carbon-based electrocatalysts, carbon-based electrocatalysts with high selectivity and satisfactory stability for electroreduction of CO2 remain rare. Here, using the nitrogen rich silk cocoon as a precursor, carbon-based electrocatalysts with intrinsic defects can be prepared for efficient and long-term electroreduction of CO2 by a simple two-step carbonization. The obtained electrocatalyst can catalyze CO2 reduction to CO with a Faradaic efficiency of ~ 89% and maintain good selectivity for about 10 days. Particularly, our experimental studies suggest that in-plane defects are the main active sites on which the rate-determining step for CO2 reduction should be the direct electron transfer to CO2 but not the proton-coupled electron transfer. Further theoretical calculations consistently demonstrate that the intrinsic defects in carbon matrix, particularly the pentagon-containing defects, act as main active sites to accelerate the direct electron transfer for CO2 reduction. In addition, our synthetic approach can convert egg white into efficient catalysts for CO2 electroreduction. These findings, providing new insights into the biomass-derived catalysts, should pave the way for fabricating efficient and stable carbon-based electrocatalysts with catalytically active defects by using naturally abundant precursors.

Keywords

carbon dioxidereductioncarbon-based catalystdefectbiomass

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Nano Research
Volume 13 Issue 3,
March 2020
Pages 729-735
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-020-2683-2
Cite this article:
Chen M, Wang S, Zhang H, et al. Intrinsic defects in biomass-derived carbons facilitate electroreduction of CO2. Nano Research, 2020, 13(3): 729-735. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2683-2
Topics:
BiomassDefectsElectrocatalystsElectrolysis Electrolytic reduction Electron transitions

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Received: 12 November 2019
Revised: 20 January 2020
Accepted: 23 January 2020
Published: 22 February 2020
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
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