Issue 5, 2022

Heterostructured Bi–Cu2S nanocrystals for efficient CO2 electroreduction to formate

Abstract

The electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (ECO2RR) driven by renewable electricity holds promise to store intermittent energy in chemical bonds, while producing value-added chemicals and fuels sustainably. Unfortunately, it remains a grand challenge to simultaneously achieve a high faradaic efficiency (FE), a low overpotential, and a high current density of the ECO2RR. Herein, we report the synthesis of heterostructured Bi–Cu2S nanocrystals via a one-pot solution-phase method. The epitaxial growth of Cu2S on Bi leads to abundant interfacial sites and the resultant heterostructured Bi–Cu2S nanocrystals enable highly efficient ECO2RR with a largely reduced overpotential (240 mV lower than that of Bi), a near-unity FE (>98%) for formate production, and a high partial current density (2.4- and 5.2-fold higher JHCOO than Cu2S and Bi at −1.0 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode, RHE). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that the electron transfer from Bi to Cu2S at the interface leads to the preferential stabilization of the formate-evolution intermediate (*OCHO).

Graphical abstract: Heterostructured Bi–Cu2S nanocrystals for efficient CO2 electroreduction to formate

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
17 Dis 2021
Accepted
14 Feb 2022
First published
15 Feb 2022

Nanoscale Horiz., 2022,7, 508-514

Author version available

Heterostructured Bi–Cu2S nanocrystals for efficient CO2 electroreduction to formate

X. Han, T. Mou, S. Liu, M. Ji, Q. Gao, Q. He, H. Xin and H. Zhu, Nanoscale Horiz., 2022, 7, 508 DOI: 10.1039/D1NH00661D

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