Nitrogen Coordinated Single Atomic Metals Supported on Nanocarbons: A New Frontier in Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction
Abstract
The rising level of atmospheric CO2 caused by increased fossil energy consumption is linked to global warming effects. Electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2RR) can convert CO2 into value-added chemical fuels by using renewable energy-generated electricity as the energy input, providing a promising solution to mitigate the CO2 emissions. Compared to conventional precious metal catalysts for CO2RR, carbon-based catalysts are made of earth-abundant elements and less expensive, with great potential for large-scale applications. In this Review, recent advances of designing and synthesizing nitrogen coordinated single atomic transition metals supported on nanocarbons (M−NX-C; M=Fe, Ni, Co) as electrocatalysts for CO2RR are reviewed from both experimental and computational aspects. The catalytic mechanisms and design principles are highlighted, and the correlations of catalyst synthesis-structure-performance relationships are discussed. The disparities in catalytic activity between noble metal catalysts (Ag and Au) and M−NX-C catalysts suggest that there is still much room to develop more advanced M−NX-C catalysts. Therefore, several strategies, including mechanism exploration, M−NX sites and carbon supports engineering, and large-scale fabrication of atomically dispersed catalysts and reactor systems design are proposed to propel the use of M−NX-C for achieving high-efficient and costeffective CO2-to-fuels conversion.
