In situ construction of thiol-silver interface for selectively electrocatalytic CO2 reduction

In situ construction of thiol-silver interface for selectively electrocatalytic CO2 reduction

Nano Research

10.1007/s12274-021-3978-7

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3978-7

Ying Chen, Feng Hu, Yanan Hao, Yonghan Wang, Yaoyi Xie, Hui Wang, Lijie Yin, Deshuang Yu, Hongchao Yang, Jun Ma, Dan Kai, Linlin Li, Shengjie Peng

Electrical and Electronic Engineering, General Materials Science, Condensed Matter Physics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

18 December 2021

Chen, Y., Hu, F., Hao, Y., Wang, Y., Xie, Y., Wang, H., Yin, L., Yu, D., Yang, H., Ma, J., Kai, D., Li, L., & Peng, S. (2021). In situ construction of thiol-silver interface for selectively electrocatalytic CO2 reduction. Nano Research, 15(4), 3283–3289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3978-7

Electrochemical CO2 reduction (ECR) is one of the most effective methods to obtain carbonaceous chemicals and reduce greenhouse gases passingly under the ambient condition. However, efficient electrocatalysts featured with high selectivity and stability are still lacking. A novel molecule-mediated Ag electrocatalyst with capped thiols is rationally designed for high-performance ECR. The thiol-capped and carbon-supported Ag nanostructures (Ag-TC) are formed by in situ electrochemical reduction from three-dimentional (3D) Ag-thiol metal-organic compound with cysteine as the anchor agent and carbon source. Ag-TC exhibits high selectivity and stability for CO2 conversion to CO (86.7%), which is more catalytically active than that of common Ag nanoparticles. The function of thiols for ECR is proved by replacing cysteine with alanine without thiol group. Meanwhile, alternatively replacing and removing the surface molecules on the Ag foil further demonstrate the effect of thiols. This work enlightens the promise of in situ construction method for molecule capped metal electrocatalyst towards selective and stable ECR.

Publisher Copyright

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (2210011636), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20210311), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2021M691561, 2021T140319), Jiangsu Planned Projects for Postdoctoral Research Funds (2021K547C), CAS Key Laboratory of Nano-Bio Interface (21NBI02), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (NS2021037).

This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3978-7

https://oar.a-star.edu.sg/communities-collections/articles/19115

1998-0000
1998-0124

Institute of Materials Research and Engineering