The escalating concentration of atmospheric CO2, driven by fossil fuel consumption, poses a significant environmental challenge. Electrochemical CO₂ reduction (CO2RR) offers a promising pathway to convert this greenhouse gas into valuable fuels and chemicals. Among these, carbon monoxide (CO) is a high-value industrial feedstock. While single-atom iron catalysts (Fe-N-C) have shown great promise for this conversion due to their high selectivity and low cost, their practical application has been severely hindered by an inherent conflict: enhancing their activity often compromises their long-term operational stability.
A team of material scientists led by Dr. Chaoyun Ma from Xinjiang University and Prof. Hao Jiang from East China University of Science and Technology has introduced an innovative strategy to resolve this dilemma. Their findings, published in the journal Nano Research on May 19, describe a new catalyst that simultaneously achieves high activity and remarkable stability for CO2-to-CO conversion.
