Electrochemical conversion of CO2 into tunable syngas on a B, P, N tri-doped carbon

Abstract

The fabrication of syngas by CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) can avoid the disadvantages of its traditional industrial productions that exacerbate energy crisis and environmental problems. Herein, a series of B, P, N tri-doped carbon (BPNC) catalysts are developed for CO2RR. The results show that, the products of CO2 electroreduction on as-prepared BPNC are CO and H2 with no other products. And on the optimal BPNC (1000 °C, nC48H40BP: nmelamine = 1:200), the faradaic efficiency of CO can reach 81.8 %, with the ratio of H2/CO from 0.2 to 6.8 easily regulated by controlling the applied potential during CO2RR process. This study would provide a good option for production of tunable syngas feedstock by CO2RR process using carbon-based catalysts for numerous downstream processes.