Superhydrophobicity-Enabled Efficient Electrocatalytic CO<sub>2</sub> Reduction at a High Temperature
Kaixin Li, Siyu Zou, Jun Zhang, Yang Huang, Lin He, Xinjian Feng
Abstract
Enhancing the electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) by a temperature increase is very attractive, but lower CO 2 solubility and the more intense competitive hydrogen evolution reaction limit the practical implementation. Herein, we report an efficient CO 2 RR at relatively high temperatures using a superhydrophobic electrode with a solid–liquid–gas three-phase interface microenvironment. Based on the three-phase electrode, the partial current density of the reduction product CO was increased by 240% from 8 to 60 °C. A mathematical model was developed to explore the CO 2 RR process, which demonstrated that the high CO 2 level and rapid CO 2 diffusion rate determine the CO 2 RR performance. The interfacial CO 2 concentration of the three-phase electrode is approximately 26.2 times higher than that of the two-phase electrode at 60 °C.