Design of a Single-Atom Indiumδ+ -N4 Interface for Efficient Electroreduction of CO2 to Formate

Huishan Shang; Tao Wang; Jiajing Pei; Zhuoli Jiang; Danni Zhou; Yu Wang; Haijing Li; Juncai Dong; Zhongbin Zhuang; Wenxing Chen; Dingsheng Wang; Jiatao Zhang; Yadong Li

doi:10.1002/anie.202010903

Design of a Single-Atom Indium^δ+ -N₄ Interface for Efficient Electroreduction of CO₂ to Formate

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2020 Dec 7;59(50):22465-22469. doi: 10.1002/anie.202010903. Epub 2020 Oct 6.

Authors

Huishan Shang¹, Tao Wang², Jiajing Pei³, Zhuoli Jiang¹, Danni Zhou¹, Yu Wang⁴, Haijing Li⁵, Juncai Dong⁵, Zhongbin Zhuang³, Wenxing Chen¹, Dingsheng Wang⁶, Jiatao Zhang¹, Yadong Li⁶

Affiliations

¹ Beijing Key Laboratory of Construction Tailorable Advanced Functional Materials and Green Applications, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, 100081, China.
² SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
³ State Key Lab of Organic-Inorganic Composites and Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China.
⁴ Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facilities, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, 201204, China.
⁵ Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100029, China.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.

PMID: 32876989
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202010903

Abstract

Main-group element indium (In) is a promising electrocatalyst which triggers CO₂ reduction to formate, while the high overpotential and low Faradaic efficiency (FE) hinder its practical application. Herein, we rationally design a new In single-atom catalyst containing exclusive isolated In^δ+ -N₄ atomic interface sites for CO₂ electroreduction to formate with high efficiency. This catalyst exhibits an extremely large turnover frequency (TOF) up to 12500 h^-1 at -0.95 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), with a FE for formate of 96 % and current density of 8.87 mA cm^-2 at low potential of -0.65 V versus RHE. Our findings present a feasible strategy for the accurate regulation of main-group indium catalysts for CO₂ reduction at atomic scale.

Keywords: CO2 electroreduction reaction; formate; indium; main group elements; single-atom catalysts.

Abstract

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