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Electrocatalysis is key to both sensitive electrochemical sensing and efficient electrochemical energy conversion. Despite high catalytic activity, traditional metal catalysts have poor stability, low selectivity, and high cost. Metal-free, carbon-based materials are emerging as alternatives to metal-based catalysts because of their attractive features including natural abundance, environmental friendliness, high electrical conductivity, and large surface area. Altering surface functionalities and heteroatom doping are effective ways to promote catalytic performance of carbon-based catalysts. The first chapter of this dissertation focuses on developing electrode modification methods for electrochemical sensing of biomolecules. After electrochemical pretreatment, glassy carbon demonstrates impressive figures-of-merit in detecting small, redox-active biomolecules such as DNA bases and neurotransmitters. The results highlight a simplified surface modification procedure for producing efficient and highly selective electrocatalysts. The next four chapters focus on evaluating nitrogen-doped carbon nano-onions (𝑛-CNOs) as electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction and CO2 reduction. 𝑛-CNOs exhibit excellent electrocatalytic performance toward O2 to H2O reduction, which is a pivotal process in fuel cells. 𝑛-CNOs demonstrate excellent resistance against CO poisoning and long-term stability compared to state-of-the-art Pt/C catalysts. In CO2 electrochemical conversion, 𝑛-CNOs demonstrate significant improvement in catalytic performance toward reduction of CO2 to CO with a low overpotential and high selectivity. The outstanding catalytic performance of 𝑛-CNOs originates from the asymmetric charge distribution and creation of catalytic sites during incorporation of nitrogen atoms. High contents of pyridinic and graphitic N are critical for high catalytic performance. This work suggests that carbon-based materials can be outstanding alternatives to traditional metal-based electrocatalysts when their microstructures and surface chemistries are properly tailored.

Le CO2 et la biomasse sont abondants dans la nature. La conversion de ces deux éléments constitutifs en carburants ou en produits chimiques à valeur ajoutée par des méthodes électrochimiques est essentielle pour atténuer la crise énergétique et réduire la pollution de l'environnement, ainsi que pour atteindre la carbone neutralité. Au cours des dernières décennies, de nombreux efforts ont été consacrés à ce domaine, mais la plupart d'entre eux se concentrent sur la conception de catalyseurs et l'amélioration des performances, et seules quelques recherches se concentrent sur de nouvelles réactions ou sur le mécanisme de ces réactions. Ici, nous développons une série de nouvelles réactions et étudions les mécanismes de ces réactions en utilisant la spectroscopie in situ, les principaux résultats sont les suivants : 1) Les réactions de réduction du furfural ont été menées en utilisant une feuille de Cu électrochimique comme catalyseur, et l'alcool furfural (FA, efficacité faradique, FE : 43,0%) et le 2-méthylfurane (MF, FE : 57,5%) ont été obtenus après électrolyse sous -0,43V (par rapport à l'électrode à hydrogène réversible, RHE). Les effets des différentes facettes du catalyseur sur la sélectivité ont été étudiés, et le Cu (110) produit préférentiellement de l'AF, tandis que les défauts sont les sites actifs pour la formation de MF. La spectroscopie Raman operando a montré que la production de FA et de MF partage le même intermédiaire à l'étape initiale, avec différents sites actifs conduisant aux différentes voies entre les étapes intermédiaires et suivantes et générant différents produits. 2) Des produits de liaison C-N (acétamide et formamide) ont été obtenus par la réaction de réduction du CO2 (CO2RR) avec la combinaison du substrat NH3 et des électrocatalyseurs commerciaux à base de nanoparticules de Cu ou de CuO. Avec l'optimisation, la FE maximale de ces deux produits est de ~10% au total, et la meilleure condition de réaction est 50mg Cu NPs, 1M KOH, avec 0.3M NH3, à -0.78V (vs. RHE) pendant 30 mins. L'IR in situ a montré que la formation de formamide et de formate partage le même intermédiaire, et que la production d'acétamide et d'acétate subit une voie de réaction similaire. 3) L'hydroxyméthanesulfonate (HMS), le sulfoacétate (SA) et le méthanesulfonate (produits de liaison C-S, FE représente 6% au total) ont été obtenus par le couplage CO2RR avec l'ajout de sulfite (SO32-), et des NPs de Cu2O synthétisées par la méthode de chimie humide ont été utilisées comme électrocatalyseurs. Parmi ces trois composés à liaison C-S, le HMS est le principal produit, la FE pouvant atteindre un maximum de 6 %. Le XRD in situ a montré que Cu0 est l'espèce active pour le processus de couplage C-S. Les calculs operando Raman et DFT ont montré que *CHOH est l'intermédiaire clé dans la formation de la liaison C-S, et que le couplage entre *CHOH et SO32- est l'étape qui détermine le taux. / CO2 and biomass are abundant in nature. Conversion of these two building blocks into fuels or value-added chemicals by electrochemical methods is essential for alleviating the energy crisis and reducing environmental pollution, and achieving carbon neutrality. In the past few decades, much effort has been devoted to this field, but most of this focuses on the design of catalysts and improvement of the performances, and only few research thrusts focus on new reactions or the mechanism of these reactions. Herein, we develop a series of new reactions and investigate the mechanisms of these reactions by using in-situ spectroscopy, the main results are shown as follows: 1) Furfural reduction reactions were conducted by using an electrochemical roughed Cu foil as the catalyst, and furfural alcohol (FA, Faradaic efficiency, FE: 43.0%) and 2-methylfuran (MF, FE: 57.5%) were obtained after electrolysis under -0.43V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode, RHE). The effects of different facets on the selectivity were investigated, and Cu (110) is preferential to produce FA, while defects are the active sites for the formation of MF. Operando Raman spectrum showed that the production of FA and MF share the same intermediate at the initial stage, with different active sites leading to the pathway differential on the intermediate of the following steps and generating different products. 2) C-N bond products (acetamide and formamide) were obtained by CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) with the combination of NH3 reactants and commercial Cu or CuO nanoparticle (NPs) electrocatalysts. The maximum FE of these two products is ~ 10% in total. With optimization, we found a higher pH, thicker catalyst layer, and larger size of cations are beneficial to the production of acetamide. This can be attributed to the higher production of C2 intermediate and further leads to a higher FE of acetamide. In-situ IR showed that the formation of formamide and formate share the same intermediate, and the production of acetamide and acetate undergoes a similar reaction pathway. The mechanism can help to design the new next generation catalyst with a higher efficiency, which is beneficial to the future application of this reaction in chemical industry. Nitrate and nitrite are used instead of ammonia as nitrogen sources to produce C-N bond compounds, which suggests that this reaction provides a new possibility for organic synthesis. In all, this reaction expands the scope of the CO2RR application, and is also good for the development of organic synthesis. 3) Hydroxymethanesulfonate (HMS), sulfoacetate (SA) and methanesulfonate (C-S bond products, FE is 6% in total) were obtained by coupling CO2RR with the addition of sulfite (SO32-), and Cu2O NPs which synthesized by the wet chemistry method were used as electrocatalysts. Among these three C-S bond compounds, HMS is the main product, FE can reach 6% maximum. In-situ XRD showed that Cu0 is the active species for C-S coupling process. Operando Raman and DFT calculation further showed that *CHOH is the key intermediate in the C-S bond formation, and the coupling between *CHOH and SO32- is the rate-determining step. The discovery of reaction intermediates opens up the possibility of designing highly efficient catalysts, which can promote the application of this reaction in real industries. Also, this reaction provides a new possibility to synthesize C-S bond products, which have the potential to partially replace traditional organic synthetic routes with greener and more sustainable procedures.