Hierarchically micro- and meso-porous Fe-N4O-doped carbon as robust electrocatalyst for CO2 reduction

The atomic-level regulation of single-atom site catalysts for the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction

“…Wang et al synthesized a nanoporous carbon supported Fe single-atom catalyst with a Fe–N 4 O structure. 78 The extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) wavelet transform (WT) results confirmed the existence of Fe–O. In the Fe–N 4 O structure, four N atoms were coordinated in a planar position to Fe, while the O atom was coordinated out-of-plane ( Fig.…”

“…The effect of the coordination steric structure towards active sites is often overlooked because of its close connection with the coordination atoms and coordination number. 78 However, it is of great importance to investigate the appropriative coordination steric structure. This provides a new strategy to regulate the electronic structure, directly modifying the accessibility of the single-atom sites, and eventually improving the selectivity and activity.…”

Carbon‐Supported Single Metal Site Catalysts for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction to CO and Beyond

“…Incorporating sacrifice templates into the precursors is a common strategy to increase the specific surface area and porosity. Many kinds of templates have been used, including silica nanoparticles, [55] MgO, [56] SBA-15, [57] Fe 2 O 3 particles, [58] and nano rod-like ZnO. [59] The metal particles formed from excessive metal precursors during pyrolysis can also act as the rigid templates, which usually introduces mesopores in carbon substrates after being removed by acid washing treatment.…”

“…The porphyritic coordination environment and the OH moieties decrease the free energy barriers of *COOH formation and destabilize the adsorption of *H, thus endowing Fe centers with high CO 2 RR activity. A similar configuration has also been identified and regarded as a possible active site for the CO 2 RR [ 56 ] and other electrocatalytic reactions. [ 85 ]…”

Mechanistic understanding and design of non-noble metal-based single-atom catalysts supported on two-dimensional materials for CO2 electroreduction

“…DFT calculations showed that *CO could be desorbed from the Fe-N 4 O motifs easier than from Fe-N 4 and Fe-N 5 sites. 102 Accordingly, regulated coordination models based on other elements are conducive to the CO 2 RR and should be considered for improving electrocatalysts.…”