Promoting electrocatalytic CO<sub>2</sub> reduction to formate via sulfur-boosting water activation on indium surfaces.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 30792388.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-08805-x and PMC identifier 6385284.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Electrocatalytic reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to fuels and chemicals is one of the most attractive routes for CO<sub>2</sub> utilization. Current catalysts suffer from low faradaic efficiency of a CO<sub>2</sub>-reduction product at high current density (or reaction rate). Here, we report that a sulfur-doped indium catalyst exhibits high faradaic efficiency of formate (>85%) in a broad range of current density (25-100 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>) for electrocatalytic CO<sub>2</sub> reduction in aqueous media. The formation rate of formate reaches 1449 μmol h<sup>-1</sup> cm<sup>-2</sup> with 93% faradaic efficiency, the highest value reported to date. Our studies suggest that sulfur accelerates CO<sub>2</sub> reduction by a unique mechanism. Sulfur enhances the activation of water, forming hydrogen species that can readily react with CO<sub>2</sub> to produce formate. The promoting effect of chalcogen modifiers can be extended to other metal catalysts. This work offers a simple and useful strategy for designing both active and selective electrocatalysts for CO<sub>2</sub> reduction.