Electroreduction of carbon dioxide into higher-energy liquid fuels and chemicals is a promising but challenging renewable energy conversion technology. Among the electrocatalysts screened so far for carbon dioxide reduction, which includes metals, alloys, organometallics, layered materials and carbon nanostructures, only copper exhibits selectivity towards formation of hydrocarbons and multi-carbon oxygenates at fairly high efficiencies, whereas most others favour production of carbon monoxide or formate. Here we report that nanometre-size N-doped graphene quantum dots (NGQDs) catalyse the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide into multi-carbon hydrocarbons and oxygenates at high Faradaic efficiencies, high current densities and low overpotentials. The NGQDs show a high total Faradaic efficiency of carbon dioxide reduction of up to 90%, with selectivity for ethylene and ethanol conversions reaching 45%. The C2 and C3 product distribution and production rate for NGQD-catalysed carbon dioxide reduction is comparable to those obtained with copper nanoparticle-based electrocatalysts.

中文翻译：

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一种无金属的电催化剂，用于将二氧化碳还原为多种碳氢化合物和含氧化合物。

将二氧化碳电还原为高能液体燃料和化学品是一种有前途但极富挑战性的可再生能源转换技术。在迄今为止筛选出的用于减少二氧化碳的电催化剂中，包括金属，合金，有机金属，层状材料和碳纳米结构，只有铜在相当高的效率下对形成碳氢化合物和多碳含氧化合物具有选择性，而大多数其他催化剂则有利于生产碳一氧化碳或甲酸。在这里，我们报告纳米级N掺杂石墨烯量子点（NGQDs）在高法拉第效率，高电流密度和低超电势下将二氧化碳电化学还原成多碳氢化合物和含氧化合物。NGQD显示出最高的法拉第二氧化碳减排总效率高达90％，乙烯和乙醇转化率达到45％。NGQD催化的二氧化碳还原的C2和C3产品分布和生产率与铜纳米粒子基电催化剂所获得的相当。