Hydride-doped Ag17Cu10 nanoclusters as high-performance electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction

Xueli Sun; Peng Wang; Xiaodan Yan; Huifang Guo; Lin Wang; Qinghua Xu; Bingzheng Yan; Simin Li; Jinlu He; Guangxu Chen; Hui Shen; Nanfeng Zheng

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.107850

Hydride-doped Ag₁₇Cu₁₀ nanoclusters as high-performance electrocatalysts for CO₂ reduction

iScience. 2023 Sep 7;26(10):107850. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107850. eCollection 2023 Oct 20.

Authors

Xueli Sun¹, Peng Wang², Xiaodan Yan³, Huifang Guo¹, Lin Wang¹, Qinghua Xu¹, Bingzheng Yan¹, Simin Li¹, Jinlu He³, Guangxu Chen², Hui Shen¹, Nanfeng Zheng^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ College of Energy Materials and Chemistry, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China.
² School of Environment and Energy, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment and Pollution Control, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.
³ College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Inner Mongolia University, Hohhot 010021, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory for Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center for Preparation Technology of Nanomaterials, and National Engineering Laboratory for Green Chemical Productions of Alcohols-Ethers-Esters, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
⁵ Innovation Laboratory for Sciences and Technologies of Energy Materials of Fujian Province (IKKEM), Xiamen 361102, China.

Abstract

The atomically precise metal electrocatalysts for driving CO₂ reduction reactions are eagerly pursued as they are model systems to identify the active sites, understand the reaction mechanism, and further guide the exploration of efficient and practical metal nanocatalysts. Reported herein is a nanocluster-based electrocatalyst for CO₂ reduction, which features a clear geometric and electronic structure, and more importantly excellent performance. The nanocatalysts with the molecular formula of [Ag₁₇Cu₁₀(dppm)₄(PhC≡C)₂₀H₄]³⁺ have been obtained in a facile way. The unique metal framework of the cluster, with silver, copper, and hydride included, and dedicated surface structure, with strong (dppm) and labile (alkynyl) ligands coordinated, endow the cluster with excellent performance in electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction to CO. With the atomically precise electrocatalysts in hand, not only high reactivity and selectivity (Faradaic efficiency for CO up to 91.6%) but also long-term stability (24 h), are achieved.

Keywords: Catalysis; Computational chemistry; Electrochemical energy conversion; Materials science.