Issue 22, 2022

Boosting CH4 selectivity in CO2 electroreduction using a metallacycle-based porous crystal with biomimetic adaptive cavities

Abstract

There is a growing interest in designing electrocatalysts for highly selective electroreduction of CO2 to deeply reduced products such as CH4. However, CO2-to-CH4 conversion remains a great challenge in controlling the multi-electron/proton transfer and the adsorption of key intermediates. In this work, a metallacycle-based porous crystal (1) was synthesized for selective CO2-to-CH4 electroconversion in aqueous solution. The single-crystal analysis results disclosed that the metallacycle module of 1 features open metal sites and could be self-adaptive to encapsulate guest molecules of different sizes in its cavity. These enable the metallacycle to function as a nano-reactor to mimic the enzymatic cavity that is surrounded by catalytically active sites and adaptively bind to diverse substrates and intermediates. Accordingly, 1 exhibits desirable CO2 capture capacity, and its porous framework further promotes CO2 diffusion to catalytic sites. The above merits bring about an excellent CH4 selectivity of 70% with a partial current density of 10.3 mA cm−2 in a H-type cell at −1.5 V (versus the reversible hydrogen electrode), while a CH4 selectivity up to 81% with a partial current density of 23 mA cm−2 in a flow cell. Mechanistic investigations suggested that the adaptive cavity and the synergistic effect of aromatic hydrogen atoms, via hydrogen-bonding interactions, are beneficial to stabilize the key intermediates of CO2-to-CH4 conversion. This work develops a novel platform to regulate the reactivity and selectivity of CO2 electroreduction reactions.

Graphical abstract: Boosting CH4 selectivity in CO2 electroreduction using a metallacycle-based porous crystal with biomimetic adaptive cavities

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 Oct 2021
Accepted
30 Jan 2022
First published
31 Jan 2022

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2022,10, 11948-11954

Boosting CH4 selectivity in CO2 electroreduction using a metallacycle-based porous crystal with biomimetic adaptive cavities

X. Wang, Z. Li, Z. Huang, L. Li, X. Peng, M. Shang, P. Liao, H. Chao, G. Ouyang and G. Liu, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2022, 10, 11948 DOI: 10.1039/D1TA08889K

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