Fabrication of Nickel Single Atoms with Ionic Liquids by Only One-Step Pyrolysis for CO Electroreduction.

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) are appealing for carbon dioxide (CO) electroreduction with the utmost advantages; however, their preparation is still challenging because of the complicated procedure. Here, a novel Ni-based single-atom catalyst (Ni-BB-BD) is constructed from raw materials, [BMIM]BF, [BMIM]DCN, and NiCl·6HO, directly without any precursor by only one-step pyrolysis. Ni-BB-BD achieves a maximum carbon monoxide Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 96.

Liquid Nitrogen Sources Assisting Gram-Scale Production of Single-Atom Catalysts for Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Reduction.

Developing metal-nitrogen-carbon (M-N-C)-based single-atom electrocatalysts for carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO RR) have captured widespread interest because of their outstanding activity and selectivity. Yet, the loss of nitrogen sources during the synthetic process hinders their further development. Herein, an effective strategy using 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([BMIM][BF ]) as a liquid nitrogen source to construct a nickel single-atom electrocatalyst (Ni-SA) with well-defined Ni-N sites on a carbon support (denoted as Ni-SA-BB/C) is reported.