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Updated: Sep 11, 2025

Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Nutrient diffusion-inspired catalysts with self-reinforced concentration gradient for sustainable electroreduction of
Jialei Chen1, Tiantian Lu1, Xuelong Liao1
1Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Renewable Energy Conversion and Storage Center (RECAST), Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China.
Abstract:
The electrocatalysis of flue gas into CO in membrane electrode assembly (MEA) provides a sustainable route for realizing practical CO2 electrolysis technology but suffers from restricted CO2 mass transport due to thick gas boundary layer (GBL) and weak concentration gradient. Inspired by nutrient diffusion mechanism in plant, we introduce the concept of self-reinforced CO2 concentration gradient, which is realized via porous carbon nanosheets (PC) as soil for enriching CO2 and single-atomic Ni-doped carbon nanotubes (Ni-CNTs) as rhizome for electro-catalyzing CO2. A combined experimental and simulation study reveals optimal length of Ni-CNTs on PC reduces the GBL thickness and spontaneously enhances CO2 concentration gradient, synergistically breaking the limitation of CO2 transport. Consequently, the CO Faradaic efficiency attains >90% with varying CO2 concentration of 4-15 vol. % CO2 in MEA. Further through incorporation of an O2-adsorption packed column before MEA, we realize the stable and selective conversion of O2-containing flue gas into CO.
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