Highly Efficient and Selective CO<sub>2</sub> Electro‐Reduction to HCOOH on Sn Particle‐Decorated Polymeric Carbon Nitride
Jianjian Tian, Min Wang, Meng Shen, Xia Ma, Zile Hua, Lingxia Zhang, Jianlin Shi
Abstract
Abstract Electrochemical conversion of CO 2 into liquid fuels by efficient and earth‐abundant catalysts is of broad interest but remains a great challenge in renewable energy production and environmental remediation. Herein, a Sn particle‐decorated polymeric carbon nitride (CN) electrocatalyst was successfully developed for efficient, durable, and highly selective CO 2 reduction to formic acid. High‐resolution X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed that the metallic Sn particles and CN matrix are bound by strong chemical interaction, rendering the composite catalyst a stable structure. More notably, the electronic structure of Sn was well tuned to be highly electron‐rich due to the electron transfer from N atoms of CN to Sn atoms via metal‐support interactions, which favored the adsorption and activation of CO 2 molecules, promoted charge transport, and thus enhanced the electrochemical conversion of CO 2 . The composite electrocatalyst demonstrated an excellent Faradaic efficiency of formic acid (FE HCOOH ) up to 96±2 % at the potential of −0.9 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode, which remained at above 92 % during the electrochemical reaction of 10 h, indicating that the present Sn particle‐decorated polymeric carbon nitride electrocatalyst is among the best in comparison with reported Sn‐based electrocatalysts.