Contact-electro-catalytic CO reduction from ambient air.

Traditional catalytic techniques often encounter obstacles in the search for sustainable solutions for converting CO into value-added products because of their high energy consumption and expensive catalysts. Here, we introduce a contact-electro-catalysis approach for CO reduction reaction, achieving a CO Faradaic efficiency of 96.24%. The contact-electro-catalysis is driven by a triboelectric nanogenerator consisting of electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride loaded with single Cu atoms-anchored polymeric carbon nitride (Cu-PCN) catalysts and quaternized cellulose nanofibers (CNF). Mechanistic investigation reveals that the single Cu atoms on Cu-PCN can effectively enrich electrons during contact electrification, facilitating electron transfer upon their contact with CO adsorbed on quaternized CNF. Furthermore, the strong adsorption of CO on quaternized CNF allows efficient CO capture at low concentrations, thus enabling the CO reduction reaction in the ambient air. Compared to the state-of-the-art air-based CO reduction technologies, contact-electro-catalysis achieves a superior CO yield of 33 μmol g h. This technique provides a solution for reducing airborne CO emissions while advancing chemical sustainability strategy.