Innovative earth-abundant metal catalysts offer a solution to convert carbon dioxide into fuels
Gang Wu and his team developed a dual-metal site catalyst that efficiently converts carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide in electrolyzers at industrial current densities
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is often regarded as a significant contributor to greenhouse gases and environmental stress. Scientists and engineers increasingly focus on converting CO₂ through sustainable and economical approaches, aiming to reduce its environmental impact and transform the emission into valuable chemical products. A new study from researchers at Washington University in St. Louis introduces a dual-metal catalyst that electrochemically converts CO₂ into carbon monoxide (CO) at industrial current densities, with great potential to produce valuable liquid fuels through well-established industry processes.
The study, led by Gang Wu, professor of energy, environmental & chemical engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering at WashU, was published May 5, 2025, in Energy & Environmental Science.
The new catalyst was synthesized using a chemical vapor deposition process that allows precise control over the placement and interaction of iron and nickel atoms within a nitrogen-doped carbon structure. This design helps maximize the number of active sites where chemical reactions can take place, making the catalyst more efficient. The team also demonstrated that the catalyst performs well in harsher and more acidic environments. Wu said these performance metrics hold great promise to efficiently convert CO2 to chemical fuels in an economically feasible manner.
Wu said his team started researching attractive single-metal-site catalysts from earth-abundant materials to replace expensive and scarce precious metals in 2014, which laid the groundwork for the current dual-metal breakthrough. While iron and nickel each show promise individually, both present tradeoffs — iron offers strong activity but poor stability, while nickel is selective yet inefficient at activating CO₂. By combining the two in a dual-metal configuration, Wu’s team utilized synergistic effects that enhanced activity and stability.
“Dual-metal site is intrinsically more active and stable than the traditional single metal site,” Wu said. “We believe this dual-metal site can address a challenging problem associated with long-term durability while achieving adequate performance for viable applications.”
Wu said that the catalyst’s performance and durability were only evaluated at the lab-scale and short-term duration, and the team is actively seeking industry partners to scale up testing and validate performance over 5,000 hours or more. Wu said the process is well-positioned for future industrial adoption.
In addition to its applications in CO₂ conversion, the innovative dual-metal catalyst shows potential for use in other electrochemical reactions and systems, including hydrogen fuel cells and nitrate removal in agricultural water treatment. Wu said nitrate pollution from agricultural runoff is an urgent environmental challenge and noted that a similar catalytic procedure could help reduce nitrate through electrochemical processes, particularly in Missouri and other Midwest states.
This research effort brought together an international team of collaborators. Wu’s group collaborated closely with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, utilizing advanced electron microscopy to investigate the atomic structure of the catalyst. Collaborators in New Zealand conducted theoretical modeling and researchers in Australia tested the catalyst in full-scale electrolysis devices. According to Wu, these partnerships were essential to achieving the project’s goals.
“Modern research is complex,” Wu said. “We have to keep opening to collaborate with people and leverage everybody's expertise.”
Qi M, Zachman M, Li Y, Zeng Y, Hwang S, Liang J, Lyons M, Zhao Q, Mao Y, Shao Y, Feng Z, Wang Z, Zhao Y, Wu G. Highly dense atomic Fe–Ni dual metal sites for efficient CO₂ to CO electrolyzers at industrial current densities. Energy & Environmental Science, online May 5, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5EE01081K
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (CBET-1804326), the startup fund at Washington University in St. Louis, and the Centre for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), a US Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Additional electron microscopy research was conducted at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven National Laboratory and XPS analysis was performed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The work was also supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE250101462).
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