Isolated FeN₄ Sites for Efficient Electrocatalytic CO₂ Reduction

Abstract

The construction of isolated metal sites represents a promising approach for electrocatalyst design toward the efficient electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide (CO₂). Herein, Fe-doped graphitic carbon nitride is rationally prepared by a simple adsorption method and is used as template to construct isolated FeN₄ sites through a confined pyrolysis strategy, which avoids the agglomeration of metal atoms to particles during the synthesis process and thus provides abundant active sites for the CO₂ reduction reaction. The isolated FeN₄ sites lower the energy barrier for the key intermediate in the CO₂ reduction process, leading to the enhanced selectivity for CO production with a faradaic efficiency of up to 93%.