Tuning the activity and selectivity of electroreduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to synthesis gas using bimetallic catalysts.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31427576.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-11352-0 and PMC identifier 6700200.
- 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
The electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction to syngas with controlled CO/H<sub>2</sub> ratios has been studied on Pd-based bimetallic hydrides using a combination of in situ characterization and density functional theory calculations. When compared with pure Pd hydride, the bimetallic Pd hydride formation occurs at more negative potentials for Pd-Ag, Pd-Cu, and Pd-Ni. Theoretical calculations show that the choice of the second metal has a more significant effect on the adsorption strength of *H than *HOCO, with the free energies between these two key intermediates (i.e., ΔG(*H)-ΔG(*HOCO)) correlating well with the carbon dioxide reduction reaction activity and selectivity observed in the experiments, and thus can be used as a descriptor to search for other bimetallic catalysts. The results also demonstrate the possibility of alloying Pd with non-precious transition metals to promote the electrochemical conversion of CO<sub>2</sub> to syngas.