Issue 9, 2022

Interfacial modification of Zn foil electrode with cationic surfactants enables efficient and selective CO production from CO2 electroreduction

Abstract

Modification of interfacial properties of the electrode/electrolyte (E/E) offers an ability to effectively tune the activity and selectivity of metal electrodes towards electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) but remains challenging. Herein, we demonstrate that directly introducing cationic surfactants with long-alkaryl chains in electrolyte can greatly promote the CO2RR on Zn foil electrode. With addition of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in 0.1 M KHCO3 solution, the Zn foil electrode presents a maximum CO Faradaic efficiency (FECO) of 94.3% with a CO current density (jCO) of 4.9 mA cm−2 at −0.90 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), much superior to those of the Zn foil electrode in the same electrolyte without CTAB (FECO = 22.5% and jCO = 0.48 mA cm−2 at −0.91 V vs. RHE), and the enhanced jCO and FECO are maintained over a period of 8 h electrolysis. The enhanced CO2RR efficiency can be attributable to the dynamic adsorption of positively charged long-alkaryl chains on the polarized Zn foil electrode that can promote the CO2 penetration and adsorption to the active sites while suppressing the competing H2 evolution reaction (HER). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the CTAB-modified E/E interface can significantly reduce the energy barrier of *CO desorption, thus enhancing the efficiency of CO2 reduction to CO.

Graphical abstract: Interfacial modification of Zn foil electrode with cationic surfactants enables efficient and selective CO production from CO2 electroreduction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
13 Mar 2022
Accepted
21 Mar 2022
First published
21 Mar 2022

Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2022,6, 2149-2154

Interfacial modification of Zn foil electrode with cationic surfactants enables efficient and selective CO production from CO2 electroreduction

H. Pan, F. Wang, Z. Zhang and S. Min, Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2022, 6, 2149 DOI: 10.1039/D2SE00344A

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