Rapid and Green Electric-Explosion Preparation of Spherical Indium Nanocrystals with Abundant Metal Defects for Highly-Selective CO2 Electroreduction

Minghang Jiang; Mengfei Zhu; Huaizhu Wang; Xinmei Song; Junchuan Liang; Da Lin; Changqing Li; Jianxun Cui; Fajun Li; Xiao Li Zhang; Zuoxiu Tie; Zhong Jin

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c04335

Rapid and Green Electric-Explosion Preparation of Spherical Indium Nanocrystals with Abundant Metal Defects for Highly-Selective CO₂ Electroreduction

Nano Lett. 2023 Jan 11;23(1):291-297. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c04335. Epub 2022 Dec 23.

Authors

Minghang Jiang^{1

2}, Mengfei Zhu¹, Huaizhu Wang¹, Xinmei Song¹, Junchuan Liang¹, Da Lin³, Changqing Li³, Jianxun Cui³, Fajun Li^{1

4}, Xiao Li Zhang⁵, Zuoxiu Tie^{1

6

7}, Zhong Jin^{1

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ MOE Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry, MOE Key Laboratory of High Performance Polymer Materials and Technology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Organic Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210023, China.
² Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Xihua University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610097, China.
³ Hebei FLANCE Nanotechnology Co. Ltd., Hebei 052360, China.
⁴ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Suzhou University, Suzhou, Anhui 234000, China.
⁵ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, Henan, China.
⁶ Nanjing Tieming Energy Technology Co. Ltd., Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China.
⁷ Suzhou Tierui New Energy Technology Co. Ltd., Suzhou, Jiangsu 215228, China.

PMID: 36563295
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c04335

Abstract

Electrochemical conversion of CO₂ into high-value-added chemicals has been considered a promising route to achieve carbon neutrality and mitigate the global greenhouse effect. However, the lack of highly efficient electrocatalysts has limited its practical application. Herein, we propose an ultrafast and green electric explosion method to batch-scale prepare spherical indium (In) nanocrystals (NCs) with abundant metal defects toward high selective electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction (CO₂RR) to HCOOH. During the electric explosion synthesis process, the Ar atmosphere plays a significant role in forming the spherical In NCs with abundant metal defects instead of highly crystalline In₂O₃ NCs formed under an air atmosphere. Analysis results reveal that the In NCs possess ultrafast catalytic kinetics and reduced onset potential, which is ascribed to the formation of rich metal defects serving as effective catalytic sites for converting CO₂ into HCOOH. This work provides a feasible strategy to massively produce efficient In-based electrocatalysts for electrocatalytic CO₂-to-formate conversion.

Keywords: carbon neutrality; defect-rich indium nanocrystals; electrocatalytic CO2-to-HCOOH reduction; scalable electric explosion synthesis; selective formate production.