Selective Etching of Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon by Steam for Enhanced Electrochemical CO2 Reduction |
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| Authors: | Xiaoqi Cui Zhiyong Pan Lijuan Zhang Huisheng Peng Gengfeng Zheng |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Department of Chemistry, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, China;2. State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science and Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, China |
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| Abstract: | Nitrogen‐doped carbon structures have recently been demonstrated as a promising candidate for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction, while in the meantime the pyridinic and graphitic nitrogen atoms also present high activities for electroreduction of water. Here, an etching strategy that uses hot water steam to preferentially bind to pyridinic and graphitic nitrogen atoms and subsequently etch them in carbon frameworks is reported. As a result, pyrrolic nitrogen atoms with low water affinity are retained after the steam etching, with a much increased level of among all nitrogen species from 22.1 to 55.9%. The steam‐etched nitrogen‐doped carbon catalyst enables excellent electrocatalytic CO2 reduction performance but low hydrogen evolution reaction activity, suggesting a new approach for tuning electrocatalyst activity. |
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| Keywords: | CO2 reduction faradaic efficiency nitrogen doping pyrrolic steam etching |
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