A universal strategy for the synthesis of transition metal single atom catalysts toward electrochemical CO2 reduction†

Herein, a pyrolysis-induced precursor transformation strategy has been proposed. Using pre-synthesized PDA-M as a precursor, the production of transition metal single atom catalysts (SACs) has been achieved, with compositional flexibility at high metal loadings. In particular, the Ni SAC sample has shown promising CO selectivity when evaluated for the electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction, reaching 29.8 mA cm⁻² CO partial current density and 90.3% CO faradaic efficiency at −1.05 V vs. RHE.