The built-in electric field across FeN/Fe3N interface for efficient electrochemical reduction of CO2 to CO

Jie Yin; Jing Jin; Zhouyang Yin; Liu Zhu; Xin Du; Yong Peng; Pinxian Xi; Chun-Hua Yan; Shouheng Sun

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-37360-9

The built-in electric field across FeN/Fe₃N interface for efficient electrochemical reduction of CO₂ to CO

Nat Commun. 2023 Mar 28;14(1):1724. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-37360-9.

Authors

Jie Yin^#¹, Jing Jin^#², Zhouyang Yin^#³, Liu Zhu^#⁴, Xin Du⁵, Yong Peng⁴, Pinxian Xi⁶, Chun-Hua Yan^{2

7}, Shouheng Sun⁸

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China. [email protected].
² State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
³ Department of Chemistry, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
⁴ Electron Microscopy Centre of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
⁵ College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China. [email protected].
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China. [email protected].
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, Peking University, Beijing, China.
⁸ Department of Chemistry, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Nanostructured metal-nitrides have attracted tremendous interest as a new generation of catalysts for electroreduction of CO₂, but these structures have limited activity and stability in the reduction condition. Herein, we report a method of fabricating FeN/Fe₃N nanoparticles with FeN/Fe₃N interface exposed on the NP surface for efficient electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR). The FeN/Fe₃N interface is populated with Fe-N₄ and Fe-N₂ coordination sites respectively that show the desired catalysis synergy to enhance the reduction of CO₂ to CO. The CO Faraday efficiency reaches 98% at -0.4 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode, and the FE stays stable from -0.4 to -0.9 V during the 100 h electrolysis time period. This FeN/Fe₃N synergy arises from electron transfer from Fe₃N to FeN and the preferred CO₂ adsorption and reduction to *COOH on FeN. Our study demonstrates a reliable interface control strategy to improve catalytic efficiency of the Fe-N structure for CO₂RR.

Grants and funding

22JR5RA540/Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province