Large-Scale Nanofiber Manufacturing| In Situ Modulated Nickel single Atoms on Bicontinuous PorousCarbon Fibers and Sheets Networks for Acidic cO,Reduction

Northwestern Polytechnical University’s Prof. Chen Kaijie et al. Adv. Mater. (IF 27.4): Biporous Carbon Nanofiber/Nanosheet Enables High-Selectivity CO₂ Reduction

Challenge: Carbon-supported single-atom catalysts exhibit excellent performance in acidic CO₂ reduction. However, traditional carbon carriers face limitations in constructing high site-utilization and CO₂-rich interfacial environments, while the structural evolution of single-atom metals and catalytic mechanisms under realistic conditions remain unclear.
Approach: Prof. Pan Fuping, Prof. Chen Kaijie, and Prof. Duan Zhiyao from Northwestern Polytechnical University reported interconnected mesoporous carbon nanofibers and nanosheets (IPCF@CS) derived from microphase-separated block copolymers to enhance the catalytic efficiency of isolated nickel.
Innovation 1: In the IPCF@CS nanostructure, the highly mesoporous IPCF prevents CS stacking, providing fully exposed sites, while the abundant biporous channels facilitate rapid CO₂ transport.
Innovation 2: Due to the optimized electronic structure and interfacial environment from in-situ regulated Ni sites and IPCF@CS carrier, the system achieves ~100% Faraday efficiency (FE) at 540 mA cm⁻², a turnover frequency (TOF) of 55.5 s⁻¹, and 89.2% single-pass conversion efficiency (SPCE) in acidic CO₂-to-CO electrocatalytic reduction.