Porous nitrogen–doped carbon derived from biomass for electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to CO

Electrochemical reduction of CO₂ using electricity from renewable sources is emerging as a promising approach for reducing global CO₂ emissions and converting CO₂ into useful chemicals. Here, a nitrogen–doped porous carbon material is proposed to electrocatalytically reduce CO₂ to CO with high activity, selectivity and superior durability. The material is synthesized by a facile one–step pyrolysis approach using biomass, namely wheat flour, and KOH as starting materials. The resulting materials show high surface area with hierarchical porous structures, and the nitrogen content and functional species can be controlled to some extent via the pyrolysis temperature. The catalyst exhibits a maximum faradaic efficiency of 83.7% and a partial current density of CO of 6.6 mA cm⁻² at an overpotential of 0.71 V in aqueous bicarbonate medium. Moreover, it also demonstrates superior long–term durability with trivial loss of activity and selectivity. Mechanistic study indicates that the pyridinic nitrogen is responsible for the high catalytic activity.