Synergy effects on Sn-Cu alloy catalyst for efficient CO2 electroreduction to formate with high mass activity

Ke Ye; Ang Cao; Jiaqi Shao; Gang Wang; Rui Si; Na Ta; Jianping Xiao; Guoxiong Wang

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2020.01.020

Synergy effects on Sn-Cu alloy catalyst for efficient CO₂ electroreduction to formate with high mass activity

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2020 May 15;65(9):711-719. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2020.01.020. Epub 2020 Jan 23.

Authors

Ke Ye¹, Ang Cao², Jiaqi Shao¹, Gang Wang¹, Rui Si³, Na Ta², Jianping Xiao⁴, Guoxiong Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China; Key Laboratory of Superlight Materials and Surface Technology of Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China.
³ Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Zhangjiang Laboratory, Shanghai 201204, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China. Electronic address: xiao@dicp.ac.cn.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China. Electronic address: wanggx@dicp.ac.cn.

PMID: 36659104
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2020.01.020

Abstract

To acquire the synergy effects between Sn and Cu for the jointly high Faradaic efficiency and current density, we develop a novel strategy to design the Sn-Cu alloy catalyst via a decorated co-electrodeposition method for CO₂ electroreduction to formate. The Sn-Cu alloy shows high formate Faradaic efficiency of 82.3% ± 2.1% and total C₁ products Faradaic efficiency of 90.0% ± 2.7% at -1.14 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). The current density and mass activity of formate reach as high as (79.0 ± 0.4) mA cm^-2 and (1490.6 ± 7.5) mA mg^-1 at -1.14 V vs. RHE. Theoretical calculations suggest that Sn-Cu alloy can obtain high Faradaic efficiency for CO₂ electroreduction by suppressing the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction and that the formate formation follows the path of CO₂ → HCOO* → HCOOH. The stepped (2 1 1) surface of Sn-Cu alloy is beneficial towards selective formate production.

Keywords: Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction; Formate; Mass activity; Sn-Cu alloy; Synergy effects.