Modulating CO<sub>2</sub> Electrocatalytic Conversion to the Organics Pathway by the Catalytic Site Dimension
Haiping Xu, J. Wang, Haiying He, Inhui Hwang, Yuzi Liu, Cheng‐Jun Sun, Haozhe Zhang, Tao Li, John V. Muntean, Tao Xu, Di‐Jia Liu
Abstract
Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to organic chemicals provides a value-added route for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. We report a family of carbon-supported Sn electrocatalysts with the tin size varying from single atom, ultrasmall clusters to nanocrystallites. High single-product Faradaic efficiency (FE) and low onset potential of CO 2 conversion to acetate (FE = 90% @ −0.6 V), ethanol (FE = 92% @ −0.4 V), and formate (FE = 91% @ −0.6 V) were achieved over the catalysts of different active site dimensions. The CO 2 conversion mechanism behind these highly selective, size-modulated p -block element catalysts was elucidated by structural characterization and computational modeling, together with kinetic isotope effect investigation.