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Axial coordination regulation of MOF-based single-atom Ni catalysts by halogen atoms for enhanced CO2 electroreduction

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Abstract

Single-atom catalysts (SACs), with the utmost atom utilization, have attracted extensive interests for various catalytic applications. The coordination environment of SACs has been recognized to play a vital role in catalysis while their precise regulation at atomic level remains an immense challenge. Herein, a post metal halide modification (PMHM) strategy has been developed to construct Ni-N4 sites with axially coordinated halogen atoms, named Ni1N-C (X) (X = Cl, Br, and I), on pre-synthetic nitrogen-doped carbon derived from metal-organic frameworks. The axial halogen atoms with distinct electronegativity can break the symmetric charge distribution of planar Ni-N4 sites and regulate the electronic states of central Ni atoms in Ni1N-C (X) (X = Cl, Br, and I). Significantly, the Ni1N-C (Cl) catalyst, decorated with the most electronegative Cl atoms, exhibits Faradaic efficiency of CO up to 94.7% in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction, outperforming Ni1N-C (Br) and Ni1N-C (I) catalysts. Moreover, Ni1N-C (Cl) also presents superb performance in Zn-CO2 battery with ultrahigh CO selectivity and great durability. Theoretical calculations reveal that the axially coordinated Cl atom remarkably facilitates *COOH intermediate formation on single-atom Ni sites, thereby boosting the CO2 reduction performance of Ni1N-C (Cl). This work offers a facile strategy to tailor the axial coordination environments of SACs at atomic level and manifests the crucial role of axial coordination microenvironments in catalysis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2021YFA1500402), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Nos. 21725101, 21871244, and 22001242), International Partnership Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) (No. 211134KYSB20190109), Collaborative Innovation Program of Hefei Science Center, CAS (No. 2020HSC-CIP005), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. WK2060000038 and WK2060000040). We thank the XAFS measurements from 1W1B station at BSRF.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Jia-**n Peng, Long Jiao & Hai-Long Jiang

  2. Department of Power Engineering, School of Energy, Power and Mechanical Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, 071003, China

    Weijie Yang & Zhenhe Jia

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Peng, JX., Yang, W., Jia, Z. et al. Axial coordination regulation of MOF-based single-atom Ni catalysts by halogen atoms for enhanced CO2 electroreduction. Nano Res. 15, 10063–10069 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4467-3

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