Atomically Dispersed Iron-Nitrogen Sites on Hierarchically Mesoporous Carbon Nanotube and Graphene Nanoribbon Networks for CO Reduction.

Atomically dispersed metal and nitrogen co-doped carbon (M-N/C) catalysts hold great promise for electrochemical CO conversion. However, there is a lack of cost-effective synthesis approaches to meet the goal of economic mass production of single-atom M-N/C with desirable carbon support architecture for efficient CO reduction. Herein, we report facile transformation of commercial carbon nanotube (CNT) into isolated Fe-N sites anchored on carbon nanotube and graphene nanoribbon (GNR) networks (Fe-N/CNT@GNR). The oxidization-induced partial unzipping of CNT results in the generation of GNR nanolayers attached to the remaining fibrous CNT frameworks, which reticulates a hierarchically mesoporous complex and thus enables a high electrochemical active surface area and smooth mass transport. The Fe residues originating from CNT growth seeds serve as Fe sources to form isolated Fe-N moieties located at the CNT and GNR basal plane and edges with high intrinsic capability of activating CO and suppressing hydrogen evolution. The Fe-N/CNT@GNR delivers a stable CO Faradaic efficiency of 96% with a partial current density of 22.6 mA cm at a low overpotential of 650 mV, making it one of the most active M-N/C catalysts reported. This work presents an effective strategy to fabricate advanced atomistic catalysts and highlights the key roles of support architecture in single-atom electrocatalysis.