Surface-Oxygen-Rich Bi@C Nanoparticles for High-Efficiency Electroreduction of CO2 to Formate

Shuang Liu; Yanpeng Fan; Ying Wang; Song Jin; Machuan Hou; Wenjiang Zeng; Ke Li; Taoli Jiang; Lang Qin; Zhenhua Yan; Zhanliang Tao; Xinhua Zheng; Chunyue Shen; Zaichun Liu; Touqeer Ahmad; Kai Zhang; Wei Chen

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c03573

Surface-Oxygen-Rich Bi@C Nanoparticles for High-Efficiency Electroreduction of CO₂ to Formate

Nano Lett. 2022 Nov 23;22(22):9107-9114. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c03573. Epub 2022 Nov 1.

Authors

Shuang Liu¹, Yanpeng Fan², Ying Wang³, Song Jin¹, Machuan Hou², Wenjiang Zeng⁴, Ke Li¹, Taoli Jiang¹, Lang Qin¹, Zhenhua Yan², Zhanliang Tao², Xinhua Zheng¹, Chunyue Shen¹, Zaichun Liu¹, Touqeer Ahmad¹, Kai Zhang², Wei Chen¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, People's Republic of China.
² Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Haihe Laboratory of Sustainable Chemical Transformations, Renewable Energy Conversion and Storage Center (RECAST), College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, People's Republic of China.
³ College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Functional Supramolecular Coordination Materials and Applications, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, People's Republic of China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Organic-Inorganic Composites, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 36317840
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c03573

Abstract

The electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR) is a promising strategy to alleviate excessive CO₂ levels in the atmosphere and produce value-added feedstocks and fuels. However, the synthesis of high-efficiency and robust electrocatalysts remains a great challenge. This work reports the green preparation of surface-oxygen-rich carbon-nanorod-supported bismuth nanoparticles (SOR Bi@C NPs) for an efficient CO₂RR toward formate. The resultant SOR Bi@C NPs catalyst displays a Faradaic efficiency of more than 91% for formate generation over a wide potential range of 440 mV. Ex situ XPS and XANES and in situ Raman spectroscopy demonstrate that the Bi-O/Bi (110) structure in the pristine SOR Bi@C NPs can remain stable during the CO₂RR process. DFT calculations reveal that the Bi-O/Bi (110) structure can facilitate the formation of the *OCHO intermediate. This work provides an approach to the development of high-efficiency Bi-based catalysts for the CO₂RR and offers a unique insight into the exploration of advanced electrocatalysts.

Keywords: Bi-MOF-derived catalyst; CO2 reduction reaction; formate/formic acid production; oxygen-rich surface; wide working potential range.