Nitrogen-doped nanocarbon as a metal-free catalyst for CO2 hydroboration.

Designing heterogeneous metal-free catalysts for highly efficient transformation of CO2 into valuable products is a dream goal and a long-standing challenge in thermal catalysis. Herein, N-doped nanocarbon catalysts, NOLCx, are synthesized and present an attractive ability to catalyse CO2 hydroboration. N doping on the NOLCx surface mainly exists in the form of pyridinic N, pyrrolic N and graphitic N, where pyridinic N and pyrrolic N are the possible catalytic active sites. In situ IR was utilized to examine the catalytic mechanism and capture the reaction intermediate. These findings could promote the in-depth understanding of carbon surface chemistry and the rational design of heterogeneous metal-free nanocarbon catalysts for CO2 thermal transformation.