Synthesis of Ag-Doped Polyoxotitanium Nanoclusters for Efficient Electrocatalytic CO<sub>2</sub> Reduction
Yajie Liu, Ping Shao, Mei‐Yan Gao, Wei‐Hui Fang, Jian Zhang
Abstract
Ag-Ti nanocomposite materials have drawn increasing research attention because of their superior catalytic properties. However, the preparation of a crystalline Ag-Ti material is an important challenge in synthetic chemistry. Herein, we report a family of atomically precise Ag-doped polyoxotitanium nanoclusters (PTCs) (PTC-253–PTC-256) with a size of 19.56 × 19.02 Å. Each Ag-PTC is made up of a tiny Ag2 kernel and a double-decker Ti12 nanowheel as well as an organic protective shell. Hence, they can be regarded as Ag2@Ti12@(L)14(OMe)n unique triple core–shell structures. Notably, the peripheral organic shell can be modified with different benzoate derivatives. With precise atomic information, these compounds can be used as ideal molecular models of Ag-Ti nanocomposite materials for studying the growth or reaction mechanism via theoretical calculations. Meanwhile, a PTC-255-modified electrode presents efficient electrocatalytic CO2 reduction activity with a Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 29.4%. This work demonstrates that Ag-doped crystalline PTC materials are promising candidates for application to the electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR).