We report characterization of a non‐precious metal‐free catalyst for the electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to CO; namely, a pyrolyzed carbon nitride and multiwall carbon nanotube composite. This catalyst exhibits a high selectivity for production of CO over H 2 (approximately 98 % CO and 2 % H 2 ), as well as high activity in an electrochemical flow cell. The CO partial current density at intermediate cathode potentials ( V =−1.46 V vs. Ag/AgCl) is up to 3.5× higher than state‐of‐the‐art Ag nanoparticle‐based catalysts, and the maximum current density is 90 mA cm −2 . The mass activity and energy efficiency (up to 48 %) were also higher than the Ag nanoparticle reference. Moving away from precious metal catalysts without sacrificing activity or selectivity may significantly enhance the prospects of electrochemical CO 2 reduction as an approach to reduce atmospheric CO 2 emissions or as a method for load‐leveling in relation to the use of intermittent renewable energy sources.
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Jhong et al. (2016) studied this question.