1T/1H-SnS<sub>2</sub> Sheets for Electrochemical CO<sub>2</sub> Reduction to Formate
Yusuke Kawabe, Yoshikazu Ito, Yuta Hori, Suresh Kukunuri, Fumiya Shiokawa, Tomohiko Nishiuchi, Samuel Jeong, Kosuke Katagiri, Zeyu Xi, Zhikai Li, Yasuteru Shigeta, Yasufumi Takahashi
Abstract
Understanding the catalytic mechanism of highly active two-dimensional electrocatalysts is crucial to their rational design. Herein, we reveal the element dependence of the reactivity of two-dimensional metal dichalcogenide sheets for electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction. We found that tin(IV) disulfide (SnS 2 ) and molybdenum(IV) disulfide (MoS 2 ) sheets exhibited Faradaic efficiencies of 63.3% and ∼0%, respectively, for formic acid. Scanning electrochemical cell microscopy and theoretical calculations were used to identify the catalytically active sites of SnS 2 as terraces and edges. Owing to the effective utilization of the entire surface area, SnS 2 can effectively accelerate catalytic reactions. This finding provides a direction for material research in two-dimensional electrocatalysts for energy-efficient chemical production from electrochemical CO 2 reduction, as well as for other energy devices.