Enhanced electrochemical CO2 reduction performance of cobalt phthalocyanine with precise regulation of electronic states

Herein, we report a facile strategy for constructing hybrid coordination configurations by combining functionalized graphene quantum dots (GQDs) with CoPc (CoPc/R-GQDs, with R being -NH2 or -OH) for electrochemical CO2 reduction. Benefiting from the high density of functional groups that can be provided by GQDs and the strong electron-donating property of -NH2, the examined CoPc/NH2-GQDs achieved a 100% faradaic efficiency for CO formation (FECO) at -0.8 to -0.9 V vs. RHE, and high FECO (over 90%) over a wide potential range of 500 mV. This work has presented a novel approach for catalyst design, specifically involving molecular engineering of quantum dots, which can also be applied to other essential electrochemical reactions.