Tuning Structural and Compositional Effects in Pd–Au Nanowires for Highly Selective and Active CO2 Electrochemical Reduction Reaction

By Shangqian Zhu, Qi Wang, X. Qin, Meng Gu, Ran Tao, Brennan Lee, Lulu Zhang, Yuze Yao, Tiehuai Li, M. Shao. Advanced Energy Materials, 2018

139 citations recorded by the source corpus.

CO2 electrochemical reduction is a promising technology to control the concentration of atmospheric CO2 and store renewable energy. However, it is extremely challenging to selectively produce important chemicals such as CO with reasonable low overpotentials and high reaction rates. In this study, twisted Pd–Au nanowires with a unique core–shell and grain boundary‐rich structure are developed. Compared with Pd nanoparticles, the synthesized nanowires have a significantly improved CO selectivity. A maximum CO faradaic efficiency (FE) of 94.3% (at −0.6 V), and an extremely low overpotential of 90 mV for CO formation with an FE of 8.5% can be achieved on Pd0.8Au nanowires. The Pd0.8Au nanowires also show superior specific and mass activities especially at low overpotentials. The low overpotential and high selectivity for CO2‐to‐CO electrocatalytic conversion are achieved simultaneously for the first time on Pd‐based nanocatalysts. Combined in situ infrared spectroscopic studies with an attenuated total reflection configuration and density function theory calculations reveal that surface CO could be more facilely generated at much lower overpotentials on nanowires as compared with that on particles. Additionally, the Au atoms in Pd–Au nanowires promote the formation of linearly bonded CO, which is easier to desorb, resulting in a fast reaction rate.

Subfields: Materials Chemistry, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/dda4bdd7b0e223cdd21546bbc7e4acba46d29d21

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Materials Chemistry

1. P. Strasser
2. Karen Chan
3. S. Boettcher
4. B. Roldán Cuenya
5. B. Seger
6. I. Stephens
7. A. Varela
8. J. Rossmeisl

In Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

1. P. Strasser
2. Karen Chan
3. A. Varela
4. B. Roldán Cuenya
5. I. Stephens
6. J. Rossmeisl
7. M. Koper
8. A. Bagger

Citations in the corpus

• 2022 roadmap on low temperature electrochemical CO2 reduction (2022, background): “ATR-SEIRAS also revealed linearly bonded CO (weak adsorbed) exhibited a higher proportion than bridge bonded CO (strong adsorbed) from Pd–Au when Au or defect was incorporated, indicating favorable kinetics for facile CO desorption (figure 13(b)) [99].”