Metal-Free SeBN Ternary-Doped Porous Carbon as Efficient Electrocatalysts for CO₂ Reduction Reaction

Cost-effective heteroatom-doped porous carbons are considered promising electrocatalysts for CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR). Traditionally porous carbons with N doping or N/X codoping (X denotes the second type of heteroatom) have been widely studied, leaving ternary doping a much less studied yet exciting topic to be explored. Herein, a series of electrocatalysts based on metal-free Se, B, and N ternary-doped porous carbons (termed "SeBN-Cs") were synthesized and tested as metal-free electrocatalysts in CO₂RR. Our study indicates that the major product of CO₂RR on the SeBN-C electrocatalysts was CO with a small fraction (<5%) of H₂ as the byproduct. The optimal electrocatalyst sample SeBN-C-1100 prepared at 1100 °C exhibits a high CO selectivity with a Faradaic efficiency of CO reaching 95.2%. After 10 h of continuous electrolysis operation, the Faradaic efficiency and the current density are maintained high at 97.6 and 84.7% of the initial values, respectively, indicative of a long-term operational stability. This study provides an excellent reference to deepen our understanding of the properties and functions of multi-heteroatom-doped porous carbon electrocatalysts in CO₂RR.