Large-scale synthesis of metal/nitrogen Co-doped carbon catalysts for CO2 electroreduction

Here, we report a facile approach for synthesizing M–N–C catalysts (M = Co, Fe, Ni) at a commercial scale without employing organic solvents. Our characterization efforts indicate that single atomic catalysts with high surface areas were successfully obtained. Electrochemical measurements demonstrate that, among the three synthesized catalysts, Ni–N–C exhibits the highest performance in the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) to carbon monoxide (CO), affording 80% Faradaic efficiency (FE) of CO production at –0.49 VRHE with a turnover frequency (TOF) of 57,379 h–1. Large-scale synthesis coupled with high performance allows moving forward with the practical implementation of M–N–C catalysts for industrially relevant CO2RR.