RESEARCH ARTICLE

Bamboo-like N-doped carbon nanotubes encapsulating M(Co, Fe)-Ni alloy for electrochemical production of syngas with potential-independent CO/H2 ratios

  • Jinxiao Bo 1 ,
  • Mei Li 1 ,
  • Xinli Zhu 1 ,
  • Qingfeng Ge 2 ,
  • Jinyu Han 1 ,
  • Hua Wang , 1
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  • 1. Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
  • 2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA

Received date: 21 Apr 2021

Accepted date: 09 Jun 2021

Published date: 15 Apr 2022

Copyright

2021 Higher Education Press

Abstract

The electrochemical conversion of CO2-H2O into CO-H2 using renewable energy is a promising technique for clean syngas production. Low-cost electrocatalysts to produce tunable syngas with a potential-independent CO/H2 ratio are highly desired. Herein, a series of N-doped carbon nanotubes encapsulating binary alloy nanoparticles (MxNi-NCNT, M= Fe, Co) were successfully fabricated through the co-pyrolysis of melamine and metal precursors. The MxNi-NCNT samples exhibited bamboo-like nanotubular structures with a large specific surface area and high degree of graphitization. Their electrocatalytic performance for syngas production can be tuned by changing the alloy compositions and modifying the electronic structure of the carbon nanotube through the encapsulated metal nanoparticles. Consequently, syngas with a wide range of CO/H2 ratios, from 0.5:1 to 3.4:1, can be produced on MxNi-NCNT. More importantly, stable CO/H2 ratios of 2:1 and 1.5:1, corresponding to the ratio to produce biofuels by syngas fermentation, could be realized on Co1Ni-NCNT and Co2Ni-NCNT, respectively, over a potential window of –0.8 to –1.2 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode. Our work provides an approach to develop low-cost and potential-independent electrocatalysts to effectively produce syngas with an adjustable CO/H2 ratio from electrochemical CO2 reduction.

Cite this article

Jinxiao Bo , Mei Li , Xinli Zhu , Qingfeng Ge , Jinyu Han , Hua Wang . Bamboo-like N-doped carbon nanotubes encapsulating M(Co, Fe)-Ni alloy for electrochemical production of syngas with potential-independent CO/H2 ratios[J]. Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering, 2022 , 16(4) : 498 -510 . DOI: 10.1007/s11705-021-2082-6

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 21873067 and 21206117). We are grateful to the analysis and test center of Tianjin University for providing physical characterizations (XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11705-021-2082-6 and is accessible for authorized users.
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