Design of Binary Cu-Fe Sites Coordinated with Nitrogen Dispersed in the Porous Carbon for Synergistic CO₂...

To relieve the green gas emission and involve the carbon neutral cycle, electrochemical reduction of CO₂ attracts more and more attention. Herein, a biatomic site catalyst of Cu-Fe coordinated with the nitrogen, which is doped in the carbon matrix (denoted as Cu-Fe-N₆ -C), is designed. The as-obtained Cu-Fe-N₆ -C exhibits higher performance than that of Cu-N-C and Fe-N-C, owing to bimetallic sites, proving synergistic functions based on different molecules and their interfaces. Cu-Fe-N₆ -C shows high selectivity toward CO, with high Faradaic efficiency (98% at -0.7 V), and maintaining 98% of its initial selectivity after 10 h electrolysis. The experimental results and theoretical calculations reveal that the synergistic catalysis of different metallic sites enlarges the adsorption enthalpy of CO₂ , reducing the activation energy result in generating high selectivity, activity, stability, and low impedance.