Improving CO2 Electrochemical Reduction to CO Using Space Confinement between Gold or Silver Nanoparticles

Kuan Chang; Xianfeng Jian; Hyung Mo Jeong; Youngkook Kwon; Qi Lu; Mu-Jeng Cheng

doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c00082

Improving CO₂ Electrochemical Reduction to CO Using Space Confinement between Gold or Silver Nanoparticles

J Phys Chem Lett. 2020 Mar 5;11(5):1896-1902. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c00082. Epub 2020 Feb 24.

Authors

Kuan Chang¹, Xianfeng Jian¹, Hyung Mo Jeong², Youngkook Kwon³, Qi Lu¹, Mu-Jeng Cheng⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 10084, China.
² School of Mechanical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, Republic of Korea.
³ School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.

PMID: 32069406
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c00082

Abstract

Developing electrocatalysts that are stable and efficient for CO₂ reduction is important for constructing a carbon-neutral energy cycle. New approaches are required to drive input electricity toward the desired CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR) rather than the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this study, we have used quantum mechanics to demonstrate that the space confinement formed in the gaps of adjacent gold or silver nanoparticles can be used to improve the Faradaic efficiency of CO₂RR to CO. This behavior is due to the space confinement stabilizing *COOH, which is the key intermediate in the CO₂RR. However, space confinement has almost no effect on *H, which is the key intermediate in the HER. Possible experimental approaches for the preparation of this type of gold or silver electrocatalyst have been proposed.