Highly dispersed cobalt phthalocyanine on nitrogen-doped carbon towards electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CO

Electrochemical CO2 reduction into high-value-added carbon-based fuels is a promising strategy to achieve the global carbon balance. Developing cost and effective electrocatalysts for conversion CO2 to CO is critical to the application. Herein, we have successfully prepared highly dispersed cobalt (II) phthalocyanine (CoPc) on N-doped carbon nanoparticles (N-C-CoPc) with a simple synthetic route. Both characterization and electrochemical analysis demonstrated that the cobalt (II) atoms derived from the phthalocyanine are well dispersed with a single atomically state. As a result, the prepared N-C-CoPc catalyst exhibits an outstanding catalytic CO2 to CO with ultralow overpotential of 170 mV, Faradaic efficiency of CO (FECO) achieving about 90% in the region of −0.58 V to −0.78 V vs RHE, and an exceptional turnover frequency with 3.89 s−1. This work provides a promising approach for preparing N-C carrier under mild conditions.