Nitrogen and Boron Co‐Doped Carbon Spheres for Carbon Dioxide Electroreduction

Abstract

The electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) powered by renewable electricity is a promising route to close the carbon cycle, but it suffers from low product selectivity and high overpotential. Here we develop nitrogen and boron co‐doped hollow carbon spheres (NB−CS) through the pyrolysis of a mixture comprising low‐molecular‐weight phenolic resols, melamine and boric acid. The optimized NB−CS catalyst presents high CO2RR performance and achieves a CO Faradaic efficiency of 95.1% at a low overpotential of 310 mV, superior to carbon spheres doped with nitrogen or boron alone. Structural and electrochemical characterizations indicate that the efficient CO2RR to CO over the NB−CS catalyst is likely ascribed to the unique graphitized architecture along with high conductivity, large surface area and high density of exposed N and B reactive sites. This work highlights opportunities to use cost‐effective and readily available carbon nanomaterials as efficient CO2RR catalysts.

Simultaneous Determination of Ascorbic Acid, Dopamine, Uric Acid, and Acetaminophen on N, P-Doped Hollow Mesoporous Carbon Nanospheres

“…From the figure, it is evident that the wall thicknesses of NPHMCS samples are 64 nm (NPHMCS-0.2), 41 nm (NPHMCS-0.4), and 25 nm (NPHMCS-0.6). It is interesting to note that the NPHMCS sample’s wall thickness decreases with increasing loading of phytic acid. , At the same time, all the carbon samples exhibit more or less similar size hollow cores. The NPHMCS-0.2 exhibited a higher wall thickness, which implies the complete involvement of PA in the PDA-SiO 2 hybrid sphere.…”

Tuning B–N pairs in porous carbon nanorods for electrochemical conversion of CO2 to syngas with controllable CO/H2 ratios

“…42 The carbon active sites induced by low electronegative boron atoms and high electronegative N atoms were recognized as active sites for CO 2 RR, 34,38,41 which can boost the charge transfer efficiency, 40 and maximize the asymmetrical spin and charge redistribution on carbon atoms, leading to a synergistic balance of the catalytic activity and selectivity. According to previous literature, 43,44 the conversion of CO 2 to CO may be generally divided into four steps: ( , indicating that the rate-determining step of CO 2 RR for NBC-5% is the single-electron transfer process (eqn (1)). 60,61 However, when the content of dopants in the catalyst changed, the activity of electroreduction of CO 2 will be different.…”

Heterogeneous Catalysis for CO2 Conversion into Chemicals and Fuels

“…The atomically dispersed Ni-N sites are coordinatively unsaturated and can suppress the HER [125]. Heteroatom-doped carbon materials have also been used for CO 2 electroreduction to CO [133][134][135]. Apart from the catalysts themselves, the reaction conditions, such as electrolyte composition and temperature, also play important roles in determining selectivity [136][137][138].…”