Cu cluster emb e dde d porous nanofibers for high-performance CO 2 electroreduction

Metal-doped carbon materials, as one of the most important electrocatalytic catalysts for CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR), have attracted increasing attention. Herein, a series of Cu cluster embedded highly porous nanofibers have been prepared through the carbonization of electro-spun MOF/PAN nanofibers. The obtained Cu cluster doped porous nanofibers possessed fibrous morphology, high porosity, conductivity, and uniformly dispersed Cu clusters, which could be applied as promising CO 2 RR catalysts. Specifically, best of them, MCP-50 0 exhibited high catalytic performance for CO 2 RR, in which the Faradaic efficiency of CO (FE CO ) was as high as 98% at -0.8 V and maintained above 95% after 10 h continuous electrocatalysis. The high performance might be attributed to the synergistic effect of tremendously layered graphene skeleton and uniformly dispersed Cu clusters that could largely promote the electron conductivity, mass transfer and catalytic activity during the electrocatalytic CO 2 RR process. This attempt will provide a new idea to design highly active CO 2 RR electrocatalyst.(c) 2023 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

Automated summary

Metal-doped carbon materials, such as Cu cluster embedded porous nanofibers, show promise as electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction reaction (CO2 RR). In this study, highly porous nanofibers with uniformly dispersed Cu clusters were prepared through the carbonization of electro-spun MOF/PAN nanofibers. The best catalyst, MCP-500, exhibited high catalytic performance for CO2 RR, with a Faradaic efficiency of CO as high as 98% at -0.8 V. The superior performance could be attributed to the synergistic effect between the layered graphene skeleton and uniformly dispersed Cu clusters.