Facile and Scalable Synthesis of Metal- and Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes for Efficient Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-21-2023
Department
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Abstract
Metal- and nitrogen-doped carbon (M-N-C) is a promising material to catalyze electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR). However, most M-N-C catalysts in the literature require complicated synthesis procedures and produce small quantities per batch, limiting the commercialization potential. In this work, we developed a simple and scalable synthesis method to convert metal-impurity-containing commercial carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and nitrogen-containing organic precursors into M-N-C via one-step moderate-temperature (650 °C) pyrolysis without any other treatment nor the need to add metal precursors. Batches of catalysts in varied mass up to 10 g (150 mL in volume) per batch were synthesized, and repeatable catalytic performances were demonstrated. To the best of our knowledge, the 10 g batch is one of the largest batches of CO2RR catalysts synthesized in the literature while requiring minimal synthesis steps. The catalyst possessed single-atomic iron-nitrogen (Fe-N) sites, enabling a high performance of >95% CO product selectivity at a high current density of 400 mA/cm2 and high stability for 45 h at 100 mA/cm2 in a flow cell testing. The catalyst outperformed a benchmark noble-metal nanoparticle catalyst and achieved longer stability than many other reported M-N-C catalysts in the literature. The scalable and cost-effective synthesis developed in this work paves a pathway toward practical CO2RR applications. The direct utilization of metal impurities from raw CNTs for efficient catalyst synthesis with minimal treatment is a green and sustainable engineering approach.
Publication Title
ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
Recommended Citation
Gang, Y.,
Pellessier, J.,
Du, Z.,
Fang, S.,
Fang, L.,
Pan, F.,
Suarez, M.,
Hambleton, K.,
Chen, F.,
Zhou, H.,
Li, T.,
Hu, Y.,
&
Li, Y.
(2023).
Facile and Scalable Synthesis of Metal- and Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanotubes for Efficient Electrochemical CO2 Reduction.
ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering,
11(18), 7231-7243.
http://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c01222
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/17108