Atomically dispersed Fe–N–C catalyst displaying ultra-high stability and recyclability for efficient electroreduction of CO2 to CO

Abstract

To avoid the agglomeration of iron NPs and improve the dispersion of Fe SAs, we employed a mixed-ligand strategy to regulate the iron content in PCN-224(Zn_xFe_y) and PCN-222(Zn_xFe_y). Thanks to the sublimation of Zn and the Kirkendall effect, uniform dispersions of Fe SAs with 1.04–1.06 wt% were obtained in the pyrolysis products Zn_0.5Fe_0.5–N–C-224 and Zn_0.5Fe_0.5–N–C-222 with excellent CO₂ → CO activity, super-stability, and recyclability.