A highly dispersed and surface-active Ag-BTC catalyst with state-of-the-art selectivity in CO2 electroreduction towards CO
Weiting Yu, Sizhuo Chen, Jieyun Zhu, Zhiqiao He, Shuang Song
Abstract
Electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) towards CO is considered as one of the most promising routes to alleviate carbon emissions and achieve a carbon-neutral cycle. In this work, a highly dispersed Ag-BTC catalyst (BTC refers to the 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylate ligand) with abundant catalytically active sites has been synthesized via a facile one-step hydrothermal method. Efficient, highly selective, and stable electrochemical reduction of CO2 into CO has been achieved on the Ag-BTC electrocatalyst. The faradaic efficiency of CO production from the CO2RR is around 95%, which is within the range of highest values reported to date. A correlation between the structure of the Ag-BTC electrode and its enhanced catalytic performance has been established through the combination of characterization results and electrochemical measurements. Furthermore, a lower Gibbs free energy change (∆G) for the rate-determining step regarding the formation of intermediate COOHads also leads to the superior catalytic performance of CO2RR on Ag-BTC.