Boosting CH3OH Production in Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction over Partially Oxidized 5 nm Cobalt Nanoparticles Dispersed on Single-Layer Nitrogen-Doped Graphene

• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.8b14822
• Publication Date: 2018-12-03T14:56:18Z
• Authors: Jianzhi Huang; Xinrong Guo; Guoqing Yue; Qiong Hu; Lishi Wang
• Keywords: Overpotential

Herein, we successfully synthesized partially oxidized 5 nm cobalt nanoparticles dispersed on a single-layer nitrogen-doped graphene (SL-NG) (denoted as PO-5 Co/SL-NG) catalyst by unique and simple one-pot synthesis strategy, which was efficiently applied for highly selective electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide to methanol in 0.1 mol dm-3 aqueous NaHCO3 medium under mild conditions, reaching the maximum faradaic efficiency (FE) 71.4% at -0.90 V versus saturated calomel electrode (SCE), possessing strong current density 4 mA cm-2 high yield 1.10 mmol h-1, corresponding overpotential is low 280 mV. Moreover, -1.0 SCE, 10 can be obtained, FE still remains 23.2%. Notably, proposed exhibits prominent stability after h electroreduction CO2, morphology, particle size, structure, element contents almost remain stable. This work first provides an advanced Co/SL-NG into methanol, simultaneously possesses merits density, overpotential, selectivity, superior FE, good stability, outperforming most reported electrocatalysts.