Derived CuSn Alloys from Heterointerfaces in Bimetallic Oxides Promote the CO<sub>2</sub> Electroreduction to Formate
Baoxing Ning, Wanjun Chang, Miaomiao Liu, Hao Jiang, Chunzhong Li
Abstract
Abstract Electroreduction of CO 2 into valuable chemicals provides a promising strategy for mitigating excessive CO 2 emissions and storing intermittent renewable energy. Herein, SnO 2 /CuOnanoparticle composites (NCs) with rich heterointerfaces were designed for selectively converting CO 2 into liquidus formate. Distinct from only monometallic phase evolved in physically‐mixed samples, Cu and Sn atoms at the heterointerfaces were in‐situ reduced into alloys under working conditions. With residual SnO x /CuO x stabilizing the CO 2 .− intermediate, CuSn alloys can obviously suppress the undesired hydrogen evolution reaction and then enhance the catalytic selectivity. In a H‐type cell, as‐obtained SnO 2 /CuO NCs exhibit Faraday efficiency (FE) of 89.3 % and current density of 18.34 mA cm −2 for formate, which is stable for 30 h at −1.0 V vs . RHE. Impressively, the formate current density of 310 mA cm −2 is achieved in a flow cell. Moreover, constructing efficient samples by the heterointerfaces engineering would provide an inspiration for designing novel electrocatalysts.