6 Conclusion
Due to the affordable price, good stability, high activity and
selectivity, Ni-N-C materials are regarded as the promising ECR
catalysts. In this review, the recent progress of Ni-N-C materials
toward ECR was systematically summarized. Based on the transformation
mechanism of CO2 to CO and the existence of Ni species
in three forms (nanoparticles, single atoms, and both), the effects on
catalytic activity, stability and selectivity from multiple regulation
strategies such as coordination environment, microstructure morphology,
defect engineering, surface modification, activation of heteroatoms,
bimetallic sites et al., were discussed in detail. These positive
efforts have exhibited powerful impetus and hope for the ECR
development, and facilitate the exploration of other M-N-C materials. In
addition, according to the current researches, we put forward the urgent
need to overcome the core problems and technical barriers that
reasonable solution will certainly promote the optimization of energy
structure. We hope this review will provide a solid basis and help for
the development of CO2 emission reduction technologies
and developing excellent electrocatalysts. To sum up, with the progress
of science and technologies, the targets of carbon dioxide emission peak
and carbon neutrality will be realized.
Acknowledgements
Q. Pang and X. Fan contributed equally to this work. This work was
financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (22278380, 22108259), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
(2021M692911, 2022T150589).