Flower-like cobalt carbide for efficient carbon dioxide conversion

Catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) to value-added chemicals under mild conditions is highly desired, albeit with significant challenges. Here, in terms of exposure of abundant active sites and excellent photo-to-thermal conversion properties, flower-like Co2C has been firstly used for effectively catalysing the cycloaddition of CO2 with epoxides to produce cyclic carbonates with yields of up to 95% under solar light. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that Lewis acid sites of the surface Co atoms can activate both CO2 and epoxide, thus opening up the possibility of a CO2-epoxide cycloaddition reaction.