Engineering Bismuth-Tin Interface in Bimetallic Aerogel with a 3D Porous Structure for Highly Selective Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction to HCOOH

Zexing Wu; Hengbo Wu; Weiquan Cai; Zhenhai Wen; Baohua Jia; Lei Wang; Wei Jin; Tianyi Ma

doi:10.1002/anie.202102832

Engineering Bismuth-Tin Interface in Bimetallic Aerogel with a 3D Porous Structure for Highly Selective Electrocatalytic CO₂ Reduction to HCOOH

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2021 May 25;60(22):12554-12559. doi: 10.1002/anie.202102832. Epub 2021 Apr 26.

Authors

Zexing Wu¹, Hengbo Wu², Weiquan Cai³, Zhenhai Wen⁴, Baohua Jia⁵, Lei Wang¹, Wei Jin², Tianyi Ma⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory Base of Eco-chemical Engineering, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Qingdao University of Science & Technology, 53 Zhengzhou Road, Qingdao, 266042, P. R. China.
² State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai, 200092, China.
³ School of chemistry and chemical engineering, Guangzhou University, 230 Guangzhou University City Outer Ring Road, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
⁴ CAS Key Laboratory of Design and Assembly of Functional Nanostructures, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350002, China.
⁵ Centre for Translational Atomaterials, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology, John Street, Hawthorn, VIC, 3122, Australia.

PMID: 33720479
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202102832

Abstract

Electrochemical reduction of CO₂ (CO₂ RR) into valuable hydrocarbons is appealing in alleviating the excessive CO₂ level. We present the very first utilization of metallic bismuth-tin (Bi-Sn) aerogel for CO₂ RR with selective HCOOH production. A non-precious bimetallic aerogel of Bi-Sn is readily prepared at ambient temperature, which exhibits 3D morphology with interconnected channels, abundant interfaces and a hydrophilic surface. Superior to Bi and Sn, the Bi-Sn aerogel exposes more active sites and it has favorable mass transfer properties, which endow it with a high FE_HCOOH of 93.9 %. Moreover, the Bi-Sn aerogel achieves a FE_HCOOH of ca. 90 % that was maintained for 10 h in a flow battery. In situ ATR-FTIR measurements confirmed that the formation of *HCOO is the rate-determining step toward formic acid generation. DFT demonstrated the coexistence of Bi and Sn optimized the energy barrier for the production of HCOOH, thereby improving the catalytic activity.

Keywords: aerogels; bismuth; formic acid; tin.

Abstract

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