Reaction Mechanisms of Well-Defined Metal-N-4 Sites in Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction

Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to CO emerges as a potential route of utilizing emitted CO2. Metal-N-C hybrid structures have shown unique activities, however, the active centers and reaction mechanisms remain unclear because of the ambiguity in true atomic structures for the prepared catalysts. Herein, combining density-functional theory calculations and experimental studies, the reaction mechanisms for well-defined metal-N-4 sites were explored using metal phthalocyanines as model catalysts. The theoretical calculations reveal that cobalt phthalocyanine exhibits the optimum activity for CO2 reduction to CO because of the moderate *CO binding energy at the Co site, which accommodates the *COOH formation and the *CO desorption. It is further confirmed by experimental studies, where cobalt phthalocyanine delivers the best performance, with a maximal CO Faradaic efficiency reaching 99%, and maintains stable performance for over 60 hours.