Silica sphere-directed N-doped carbon-supported Ni catalysts boost electrochemical CO evolution for syngas production

Building upon the preferential CO evolution (PCE)-preferential H₂ evolution (PHE) Ni/NC&Mo/NC composite catalyst concept for syngas production via electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction established in our previous work, herein, we focus on developing an efficient PCE catalyst unit to boost the electrochemical production of syngas by employing silica spheres with a particle size of 260 nm as a template, and a much superior CO partial current density of 42.8 mA cm^-2 at -0.8 V vs. RHE is achieved, which is ascribed to the promoted Ni dispersion, accelerated mass/charge transfer and increased CO₂ adsorption capacity.