Selective Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide to Ethanol on a Boron‐ and Nitrogen‐Co‐doped Nanodiamond

Abstract

Electrochemical reduction of CO₂ to ethanol, a clean and renewable liquid fuel with high heating value, is an attractive strategy for global warming mitigation and resource utilization. However, converting CO₂ to ethanol remains great challenge due to the low activity, poor product selectivity and stability of electrocatalysts. Here, the B- and N-co-doped nanodiamond (BND) was reported as an efficient and stable electrode for selective reduction of CO₂ to ethanol. Good ethanol selectivity was achieved on the BND with high Faradaic efficiency of 93.2 % (-1.0 V vs. RHE), which overcame the limitation of low selectivity for multicarbon or high heating value fuels. Its superior performance was mainly originated from the synergistic effect of B and N co-doping, high N content and overpotential for hydrogen evolution. The possible pathway for CO₂ reduction revealed by DFT computation was CO₂ →*COOH→*CO→*COCO→*COCH₂ OH→*CH₂ OCH₂ OH→CH₃ CH₂ OH.