CO2 Overall Splitting by a Bifunctional Metal-Free Electrocatalyst

Photo/electrochemical CO2 splitting is impeded by the low cost-effective catalysts for key reactions: CO2 reduction (CDRR) and water oxidation. A porous silicon and nitrogen co-doped carbon (SiNC) nanomaterial by a facile pyrolyzation was developed as a metal-free bifunctional electrocatalyst. CO2-to-CO and oxygen evolution (OER) partial current density under neutral conditions were enhanced by two orders of magnitude in the Tafel regime on SiNC relative to single-doped comparisons beyond their specific area gap. The photovoltaic-driven CO2 splitting device with SiNC electrodes imitating photosynthesis yielded an overall solar-to-chemical efficiency of advanced 12.5% (by multiplying energy efficiency of CO2 splitting cell and photovoltaic device) at only 650mV overpotential. Mechanism studies suggested the elastic electron structure of -Si(O)-C-N- unit in SiNC as the highly active site for CDRR and OER simultaneously by lowering the free energy of CDRR and OER intermediates adsorption.