Efficient Tetra-Functional Electrocatalyst with Synergetic Effect of Different Active Sites for Multi-Model Energy Conversion and Storage

Energy crisis and global warming due to excessive CO2 emissions are the two major challenges of the world. Conversion of CO2 into useful fuels along with rechargeable metal air batteries and water splitting is one way to combat the energy crisis, which is bottlenecked due to the lack of multifunctional electrocatalyst. Herein simple but multifunctional electrocatalyst, which combined CoNi nanoalloy, N-doped carbon nanotubes, and single atomic Ni sites together is reported. The prepared electrocatalyst has shown remarkable performance for CO2RR, ORR, OER, and HER. The practical utilization of the catalyst is mansifested by a dual model metal CO2/air battery and water electrolyzer. An excellent CO2RR with FE of 99% is achieved in 0.5 M KHCO3 medium. The catalyst exhibits more positive onset (0.98 V) and half wave potential (0.86 V) than Pt/C for ORR, extremely low overpotential (η10) of 250 mV for OER, and thus the lowest ORR/OER potential gap of 0.62 V. In alkaline medium, the catalyst also shows excellent HER performance with η10 of 49 mV, resulting in the smallest cell bias of 1.57 V for overall water splitting to date. This work provides a new pathway to design more stellar multifunctional electrocatalyst for sustainable and clean renewable energy technology.