Issue 11, 2021

Bromine anion mediated epitaxial growth of core–shell Pd@Ag towards efficient electrochemical CO2 reduction

Abstract

Noble-metal core–shell nanostructures are promising electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction thanks to their interfacial configurations which are beneficial for electrocatalytic kinetics, but are severely limited to a few couples that require tiny lattice mismatches (<3%) between two metals for classical epitaxial growth. Herein, non-classical epitaxial growth mediated by bromine anions (Br) is proposed to surmount the thermodynamic limitation of largely mismatched Ag and Pd lattices (5.012%), resulting in core–shell Pd@Ag cubes that are unavailable via conventional strategies. As evidenced, Br strongly bonded on the surface of Pd seeds serves as a buffer layer (possibly AgBr) to relieve interfacial strains and enable the epitaxial growth of Ag lattices. Due to interfacial electron-transfer, the engineered Ag sites enhance efficient CO2 reduction to CO (faradaic efficiency ∼85% at −0.8 V vs. RHE in 0.5 M KHCO3), superior to the counterparts of Pd octahedrons, Ag nanoparticles and Pd–Ag nanoalloys. Providing new insights into the epitaxial growth of core–shell nanocrystals, this study is anticipated to inspire new design strategies for active and selective electrocatalysts.

Graphical abstract: Bromine anion mediated epitaxial growth of core–shell Pd@Ag towards efficient electrochemical CO2 reduction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Research Article
Submitted
01 fev 2021
Accepted
07 apr 2021
First published
08 apr 2021

Mater. Chem. Front., 2021,5, 4327-4333

Bromine anion mediated epitaxial growth of core–shell Pd@Ag towards efficient electrochemical CO2 reduction

Y. Wu, J. Zeng, Y. Yang, Z. Li, W. Zhang, D. Li and Q. Gao, Mater. Chem. Front., 2021, 5, 4327 DOI: 10.1039/D1QM00169H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements