Issue 32, 2018

Achieving convenient CO2 electroreduction and photovoltage in tandem using potential-insensitive disordered Ag nanoparticles

Abstract

Photovoltaic-electrochemical (PV-EC) systems can not only make full use of solar energy, but also transform CO2 into organic molecules. However, it is difficult to achieve PV-EC systems since most CO2 reduction catalysts are potential-dependent. This paper describes the rational design of potential-insensitive disordered Ag, which can achieve more than 90% faradaic efficiency (FE) for CO within a wide voltage range of 1.1 V in an electroreduction CO2 system. The system shows attractive activity under different photovoltage conditions in a PV-EC system. By employing in situ attenuated total reflection surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (ATR-SEIRAS), we address the origin of the volcano peak of FE on Ag nanoclusters to understand the mechanism of the carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR). In addition, we find that the CO2RR on disordered Ag nanoparticles is a proton–electron coupling transfer (PECT) reaction mechanism, which may result in high activity in a wide potential range.

Graphical abstract: Achieving convenient CO2 electroreduction and photovoltage in tandem using potential-insensitive disordered Ag nanoparticles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
12 Jun 2018
Accepted
19 Jul 2018
First published
20 Jul 2018
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 6599-6604

Achieving convenient CO2 electroreduction and photovoltage in tandem using potential-insensitive disordered Ag nanoparticles

W. Deng, L. Zhang, H. Dong, X. Chang, T. Wang and J. Gong, Chem. Sci., 2018, 9, 6599 DOI: 10.1039/C8SC02576B

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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