Research Highlights

Ordered carbonaceous frameworks (OCFs, i.e., carbonized metal-coordinated porphyrins) are well-defined, microporous structures with high specific surface areas, narrow pore-size distributions, and immobile, atomically dispersed metal species.

Because these unique properties can be tailored through molecular-precursor design, OCFs are also ideal platforms for exploring energy storage, conversion, and electrocatalysis applications¹.

In a 2023 article, an AIMR team led by Hirotomo Nishihara and Takeharu Yoshii used this strategy to make a breakthrough in OCF research². By selecting Co- and Cu-coordinated porphyrin precursors with otherwise identical molecular structures, the team successfully synthesized new OCFs including single-metal Co and Cu OCFs, as well as a bimetallic Co-Cu OCF.

“One important result was that our energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy elemental mapping and cyclic voltammetry measurements indicated the Co and Cu atoms in the bimetallic OCF were not only homogeneously dispersed, but they also exhibited synergetic effects,” says Yoshii.

Currently, the team is investigating how a single Co-Cu bimetallic OCF catalyst can sequentially convert CO₂ to C2 compounds via CO.

“We know that immobilized single-atom Co catalysts excel at reducing CO₂ to CO, while their Cu counterparts are great at converting CO to C2 compounds,” says Yoshii. “If we can use the synergetic effects of bimetallic OCFs to isolate an efficient tandem catalyst, the impact of this research will be significant for advancing CO₂ conversion technologies and beyond.”

(Author: Patrick Han)