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Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Taming the Hydrogen-Mediated Kinetic Switch for Sulfur-Tolerant CO2 Electroreduction
Mingzhi Wang1, Wensheng Fang1, Lebin Cai1
1State Key Laboratory of New Textile Materials and Advanced Processing, Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry for Energy Conversion and Storage (Ministry of Education), Hubei Key Laboratory of Material Chemistry and Service Failure, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China.
None:
Direct electrochemical conversion of industrial flue gas offers a promising route to carbon neutrality, but it remains limited by trace sulfur dioxide (SO2, 10-400 ppm) impurities. These impurities cause rapid catalyst deactivation, particularly under the high reaction rates required for industrial application. Here, we introduce a hydrophobic molecular gate strategy to decouple impurity transport from catalyst deactivation. By regulating the interfacial water solvation structure and proton transfer pathways, this design creates a water-deficient regime to lock the kinetic switch. As a result, SO2 is isolated from the hydrogen-mediated reduction, while the transient water required for efficient CO2 conversion is preserved. When paired with a lattice-strained copper catalyst, this architecture allows a scaled-up 100 cm2 membrane electrode assembly (MEA) to operate at a total current of 20 A for over 120 h, maintaining an ethylene (C2H4) Faradaic efficiency (FE) >56% in simulated flue gas.
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