Gram‐Scale Preparation of Tri‐Coordinated Single‐Atom Catalysts for CO2 Electrolysis in Large‐Scale Membrane Electrode Assembly

Abstract Accelerating the commercialization of CO2 electroreduction is essential for carbon utilization, yet it faces challenges of precious metal catalysts cost and scaling‐up of the corresponding devices. In this study, a low‐cost and tri‐coordinated single‐atom catalyst (SAC) with Ni‐N3 center is...

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Main Authors: Lei Yuan, Xin Li, Guilin Li, Kuilin Peng, Hongyu Zhang, Shaojuan Zeng, Xiaofu Sun, Xiangping Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2025-05-01
Series:Advanced Science
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202500368
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author Lei Yuan
Xin Li
Guilin Li
Kuilin Peng
Hongyu Zhang
Shaojuan Zeng
Xiaofu Sun
Xiangping Zhang
author_facet Lei Yuan
Xin Li
Guilin Li
Kuilin Peng
Hongyu Zhang
Shaojuan Zeng
Xiaofu Sun
Xiangping Zhang
author_sort Lei Yuan
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Accelerating the commercialization of CO2 electroreduction is essential for carbon utilization, yet it faces challenges of precious metal catalysts cost and scaling‐up of the corresponding devices. In this study, a low‐cost and tri‐coordinated single‐atom catalyst (SAC) with Ni‐N3 center is fabricated in gram‐scale using metal ionic liquids as precursor. The gram‐scale Ni‐N3 SAC (g‐NiN3) achieves efficient electroreduction of CO2 to CO (eCO2‐to‐CO) with a maximum Faradaic efficiency of 98.9% at 2.8 V in a 2 × 2 cm2 membrane electrode assembly (MEA) cell, and CO selectivity exceeds 90% during 100 h electrolysis at 100 mA·cm−2. Moreover, the g‐NiN3 is tested in a scale‐up MEA reactor (10 × 10 cm2), which can not only show 97.1% CO Faradaic efficiency with a reaction current of 6.07 A but also achieves a CO2 single‐pass conversion of 41.0%, corresponding to energy efficiency of the system as high as 43.1%. The overall performance of g‐NiN3 is one of the state‐of‐the‐art systems for eCO2‐to‐CO. In addition, the scale‐up device stably generates CO at a high rate of 12.0 L·kW·h−1 over continuous CO2 electrolysis. The techno‐economic assessment demonstrates that the eCO2‐to‐CO using g‐NiN3 can realize CO production cost of 1.08 $·kg−1, and shows great profitability prospects in the future.
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spelling doaj-art-78f2f287fd3b4f76bb5bb67a5861dfc42025-08-20T02:34:47ZengWileyAdvanced Science2198-38442025-05-011218n/an/a10.1002/advs.202500368Gram‐Scale Preparation of Tri‐Coordinated Single‐Atom Catalysts for CO2 Electrolysis in Large‐Scale Membrane Electrode AssemblyLei Yuan0Xin Li1Guilin Li2Kuilin Peng3Hongyu Zhang4Shaojuan Zeng5Xiaofu Sun6Xiangping Zhang7Beijing Key Laboratory of Ionic Liquids Clean Process State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering Institute of Process Engineering Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 ChinaBeijing Key Laboratory of Ionic Liquids Clean Process State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering Institute of Process Engineering Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 ChinaBeijing Key Laboratory of Ionic Liquids Clean Process State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering Institute of Process Engineering Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 ChinaBeijing Key Laboratory of Ionic Liquids Clean Process State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering Institute of Process Engineering Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 ChinaBeijing Key Laboratory of Ionic Liquids Clean Process State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering Institute of Process Engineering Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 ChinaBeijing Key Laboratory of Ionic Liquids Clean Process State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering Institute of Process Engineering Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 ChinaInstitute of Chemistry Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 ChinaBeijing Key Laboratory of Ionic Liquids Clean Process State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering Institute of Process Engineering Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing 100190 ChinaAbstract Accelerating the commercialization of CO2 electroreduction is essential for carbon utilization, yet it faces challenges of precious metal catalysts cost and scaling‐up of the corresponding devices. In this study, a low‐cost and tri‐coordinated single‐atom catalyst (SAC) with Ni‐N3 center is fabricated in gram‐scale using metal ionic liquids as precursor. The gram‐scale Ni‐N3 SAC (g‐NiN3) achieves efficient electroreduction of CO2 to CO (eCO2‐to‐CO) with a maximum Faradaic efficiency of 98.9% at 2.8 V in a 2 × 2 cm2 membrane electrode assembly (MEA) cell, and CO selectivity exceeds 90% during 100 h electrolysis at 100 mA·cm−2. Moreover, the g‐NiN3 is tested in a scale‐up MEA reactor (10 × 10 cm2), which can not only show 97.1% CO Faradaic efficiency with a reaction current of 6.07 A but also achieves a CO2 single‐pass conversion of 41.0%, corresponding to energy efficiency of the system as high as 43.1%. The overall performance of g‐NiN3 is one of the state‐of‐the‐art systems for eCO2‐to‐CO. In addition, the scale‐up device stably generates CO at a high rate of 12.0 L·kW·h−1 over continuous CO2 electrolysis. The techno‐economic assessment demonstrates that the eCO2‐to‐CO using g‐NiN3 can realize CO production cost of 1.08 $·kg−1, and shows great profitability prospects in the future.https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202500368CO2 electroreductionionic liquidssingle‐atom catalystscale‐uptechno‐economic assessment
spellingShingle Lei Yuan
Xin Li
Guilin Li
Kuilin Peng
Hongyu Zhang
Shaojuan Zeng
Xiaofu Sun
Xiangping Zhang
Gram‐Scale Preparation of Tri‐Coordinated Single‐Atom Catalysts for CO2 Electrolysis in Large‐Scale Membrane Electrode Assembly
Advanced Science
CO2 electroreduction
ionic liquids
single‐atom catalyst
scale‐up
techno‐economic assessment
title Gram‐Scale Preparation of Tri‐Coordinated Single‐Atom Catalysts for CO2 Electrolysis in Large‐Scale Membrane Electrode Assembly
title_full Gram‐Scale Preparation of Tri‐Coordinated Single‐Atom Catalysts for CO2 Electrolysis in Large‐Scale Membrane Electrode Assembly
title_fullStr Gram‐Scale Preparation of Tri‐Coordinated Single‐Atom Catalysts for CO2 Electrolysis in Large‐Scale Membrane Electrode Assembly
title_full_unstemmed Gram‐Scale Preparation of Tri‐Coordinated Single‐Atom Catalysts for CO2 Electrolysis in Large‐Scale Membrane Electrode Assembly
title_short Gram‐Scale Preparation of Tri‐Coordinated Single‐Atom Catalysts for CO2 Electrolysis in Large‐Scale Membrane Electrode Assembly
title_sort gram scale preparation of tri coordinated single atom catalysts for co2 electrolysis in large scale membrane electrode assembly
topic CO2 electroreduction
ionic liquids
single‐atom catalyst
scale‐up
techno‐economic assessment
url https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202500368
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