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Long-chain hydrocarbons by CO2 electroreduction using polarized nickel catalysts

Abstract

The electroreduction of CO2, driven by renewable electricity, can be used to sustainably generate synthetic fuels. So far, only copper-based materials have been used to catalyse the formation of multicarbon products, albeit limited to C2 or C3 molecules. Herein, we disclose that inorganic nickel oxygenate-derived electrocatalysts can generate linear and branched C3 to C6 hydrocarbons with sustained Faradaic efficiencies of up to 6.5%, contrasting with metallic nickel, which is practically inactive. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy, electrochemical CO stripping and density functional theory pinpoint the presence of stable, polarized Niδ+ active sites associated with Ni–O bonds, which bind CO moderately. The reduction of selected C1 molecules and density functional theory simulations suggest that the Niδ+ sites promote a mechanism reminiscent of the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis: COOH + CHx coupling followed by successive CHx insertions. Our results disclose atom polarization to be the key that prevents the CO poisoning of nickel and enables CO2 reduction to a wider pool of valuable products.

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Fig. 1: CO2 electroreduction to hydrocarbons on Ni catalysts.
Fig. 2: Hydrocarbon formation on Cu and PD-Ni.
Fig. 3: Redox response and operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy studies.
Fig. 4: CO adsorption properties of metallic nickel, s-Ni and PD-Ni catalysts.
Fig. 5: Experimental screening of key intermediates in the CO2RR on PD-Ni.
Fig. 6: Impact of Ni polarization on the adsorption and insertion steps.
Fig. 7: First C–C coupling steps in the CO2RR on polarized nickel and copper surfaces.

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Data availability

The experimental data relating to the figures and tables presented in this manuscript are available online in the Zenodo repository at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6331376. The DFT datasets generated during the current study are available in the ioChem-BD database54 at https://doi.org/10.19061/iochem-bd-1-200 (ref. 55). All other raw data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the National University of Singapore, Green Energy program (R143-000-A64-114 and R143-000-B52-114), ETH Zürich (research grant ETH-47 19-1) and the Swiss National Science Foundation through the National Center of Competence in Research NCCR Catalysis (grant 180544). F.D. and N.L. thank the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RTI2018-101394-B-I00), Severo Ochoa (CEX2019-000925-S) for financial support. The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-RES) is acknowledged for providing generous computational resources. We thank J. Li of the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore for performing part of the SEM analysis.

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B.S.Y. and J.P.-R. coordinated the project. Y.Z. designed the experiments and analysed the results. F.D. and N.L. carried out the computational simulations. A.J.M. assisted with the CO stripping experiments and developed the concept of process integration. S.X. assisted with the XAFS measurements. All authors read and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Núria López, Javier Pérez-Ramírez or Boon Siang Yeo.

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Nature Catalysis thanks Rosa Arán-Ais, Chuan-Xin He and Yan Zhao for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Extended data

Extended Data Table 1 CO2RR products and their corresponding Faradaic efficiencies on inorganic nickel oxygenate-derived electrocatalysts and sputter-deposited Ni (s-Ni)a
Extended Data Table 2 CO2RR products and their corresponding Faradaic efficiencies on PD-Ni and Cua

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Notes 1–3, Figs. 1–51, Tables 1–15 and Equations 1–7.

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Zhou, Y., Martín, A.J., Dattila, F. et al. Long-chain hydrocarbons by CO2 electroreduction using polarized nickel catalysts. Nat Catal 5, 545–554 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-022-00803-5

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