Activation of Ni Particles into Single Ni–N Atoms for Efficient Electrochemical Reduction of CO₂

Abstract

Abstract Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to fuels and value‐added industrial chemicals is a promising strategy for keeping a healthy balance between energy supply and net carbon emissions. Here, the facile transformation of residual Ni particle catalysts in carbon nanotubes into thermally stable single Ni atoms with a possible NiN 3 moiety is reported, surrounded with a porous N‐doped carbon sheath through a one‐step nanoconfined pyrolysis strategy. These structural changes are confirmed by X‐ray absorption fine structure analysis and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The dispersed Ni single atoms facilitate highly efficient electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction at low overpotentials to yield CO, providing a CO faradaic efficiency exceeding 90%, turnover frequency approaching 12 000 h −1 , and metal mass activity reaching about 10 600 mA mg −1 , outperforming current state‐of‐the‐art single atom catalysts for CO 2 reduction to CO. DFT calculations suggest that the Ni@N 3 (pyrrolic) site favors *COOH formation with lower free energy than Ni@N 4 , in addition to exothermic CO desorption, hence enhancing electrocatalytic CO 2 conversion. This finding provides a simple, scalable, and promising route for the preparation of low‐cost, abundant, and highly active single atom catalysts, benefiting future practical CO 2 electrolysis.