Unraveling the Catalytic Performance of the Nonprecious Metal Single-Atom-Embedded Graphitic s-Triazine-Based C₃N₄ for CO₂ Hydrogenation

Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is regarded as a promising potent photoelectrocatalyst for CO2 reduction. Here, extensive first-principles calculations and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations are performed to systematically explore the structural and electronic properties of nonprecious metal single-atom-embedded graphitic s-triazine-based C3N4 (M@gt-C3N4, M = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, and Mo) monolayer materials and their catalytic performances as the single-atom catalysts (SACs) for CO2 hydrogenation to HCOOH, CO, and CH3OH. It is found that the atomically dispersed non-noble metal Mn, Fe, Co, and Mo sites anchored on gt-C3N4 can efficiently activate both H2 and CO2, and their coadsorbed state serves as a precursor to the hydrogenation of CO2 to different C1 products. Among these SACs (M@gt-C3N4, M = Mn, Fe, Co, and Mo), Co@gt-C3N4 was predicted to have the best catalytic performance for CO2 hydrogenation to C1 products, although their mechanistic details are somewhat different. The predicted energy barriers of the rate-determining steps for the conversion of CO2 into HCOOH, CO, and CH3OH on Co@gt-C3N4 are 0.58, 0.67, and 1.19 eV, respectively. The desorption of products is generally energy-demanding, but it can be facilitated remarkably by the subsequent adsorption of H2, which regenerates M@gt-C3N4 for the next catalytic cycle. The present study demonstrates that the catalytic performance of gt-C3N4 can be well regulated by embedding the non-noble metal single atom, and the porous gt-C3N4 is nicely suited for the construction of high-performance single-atom catalysts.