Authors
Ian Street, Venkata Sai Sriram Mosali, Noah Sandberg, Fengyuan Shi, Deborah Myers, William E Mustain
Published in
Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.). Pages e75349. Oct 08, 2026. Epub Oct 08, 2026.
Abstract
Nickel single atom catalysts (Ni-SACs) perform electrochemical CO2 reduction (ECO2R) with near-unity selectivity, making them promising new catalysts for future industrial applications. However, modern synthesis methods are long and complicated, preventing large-scale economic feasibility. This has spurred interest in finding facile, scalable electrochemical pathways to synthesize SACs at ambient temperatures. Here, we propose a mechanism where highly selective Ni-SACs are generated in situ using a Ni anode as the Ni source. In short, during activation, Ni dissolves from the anode, migrates through the membrane, and electrodeposits as Ni(0) on a nitrogen-doped carbon precatalyst. When voltage is removed, the deposited Ni disperses to active sites throughout the cathode surface. Using this method, a highly active and selective Ni catalyst is generated in situ, achieving ECO2R selectivity of 100% at -2.4 V in chronoamperometric experiments and >90% for 7 h of operation at -2.4 V. Using post-mortem XRD, STEM, EDS, and operando EXAFS, the mechanism for successful generation of the in situ Ni-SAC was uncovered. This study takes a new look at electrochemical SAC synthesis, offering a scalable pathway that maintains the simplicity of electrodeposition techniques while converting selectivity-limiting metal clusters into single atom sites through a simple, in situ cell treatment procedure.
PMID:
42850994
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 09 Oct 2026.
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