Understanding the water molecule effect in metal-free B-based electrocatalysts for electrochemical CO₂ reduction

Abstract

Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction (CO2RR) is a feasible and economical way to eliminate CO2 by converting it into useful products. However, this process is hampered by the lack of a highly...

Recent Development Strategies for Bismuth‐Driven Materials in Sustainable Energy Systems and Environmental Restoration

“…[299] A recent study has demonstrated that boron doping (single and double atoms) for bismuthene catalysts can produce very high selectivity in a controlled environment with water molecules. [300] Interestingly, the promotion of the CO 2 RR through the regulation of the reconstruction of Bi-MOFs has been reported by Yao et al [301] Their study highlights that electrolyte-and potential-mediated reconstruction occurs in separate processes. In particular, reconstruction of the Bi-MOFs prior to CO 2 electroreduction occurs via two stages: 1) HCO 3 -initiated ligand substitution through the electrolyte-mediated conversion of Bi-MOFs to Bi 2 O 2 CO 3 nanosheets, and 2) a potential-mediated reduction of Bi 2 O 2 CO 3 to Bi following the first stage.…”

Metal-free boron nanosheet as “buffer electron pool” for urea and ethanol synthesis via C–N and C–C coupling

“…Thus, β 12 -BM is an electrocatalyst with excellent C–C coupling performance compared with B 2 @Bi. 35 The Δ G values for subsequent four hydrogenation steps are −0.74 eV, −0.62 eV, −0.47 eV, and 0.10 eV, respectively. After the formation of *CH 2 CHO on the surface of β 12 -BM, the next steps follow path a and path b .…”

“…Thus, b 12 -BM is an electrocatalyst with excellent C-C coupling performance compared with B 2 @Bi. 35 The DG values for subsequent four hydrogenation steps are −0.74 eV, −0.62 eV, −0.47 eV, and 0. As shown in Fig.…”

“…33,34 Importantly, the B-based metal-free electrocatalysts have excellent performance for C-N and C-C coupling. For example, Li et al reported that the double boron atom-doped bismuthene (B 2 @Bi) could be employed to produce C 2 H 4 by C-C coupling in the liquid phase with the h value of 0.90 V. 35 In addition, Mo 2 B 2 , Ti 2 B 2 , and Cr 2 B 2 have superior intrinsic basal activity and selectivity for the electrocatalytic coupling of N 2 and CO 2 to produce urea, as suggested by density functional theory (DFT) computations. 36 The main challenges in the electrochemical synthesis of urea and C2 products by C-N and C-C coupling on metal-free electrocatalysts lie in three aspects: (1) extraordinarily weak interaction between inert CO 2 /NO and metal-free electrocatalysts; (2) complex hydrogenation process leads to an unclear mechanism of urea synthesis; (3) high overpotential and a large distribution of complex products for the C-N and C-C coupling reactions.…”

Structure–activity relationship of Cu-based catalysts for the highly efficient CO2 electrochemical reduction reaction

“…The alloy effect of the metal catalyst is another key factor in catalytic reactions. The electronic structure of metal catalysts can be controlled by alloying with other metal atoms, which is an obvious characteristic of Cu-based catalysts ( Weng et al, 2018 ; Meng et al, 2022 ). A Cu–Ni alloy catalyst embedded in the N-doped carbon framework (CuNi/NC) synthesized for CO 2 RR showed excellent activity and selectivity for electrocatalytic CO 2 RR to CO, with a high Faradaic efficiency of 99.7% and a potential of −0.6 V ( Zhang, 2019 ; Zhong et al, 2020 ).…”