CO<sub>2</sub> hydrogenation to HCOOH catalyzed by aqueous Pd needle assembly.

Wang, Mengjun; Jia, Jun; Xia, Jing; Peng, Chun-Kuo; He, Jinxin; Qiu, Yueming; He, Yuting; Gao, Le et al. · Nat Commun · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) conversion to liquid fuels has attracted great attention due to the current environmental concerns and energy crisis. However, the selective conversion of CO<sub>2</sub> to target liquids is formidably challenging due to the chemical inertness of CO<sub>2</sub>. We theoretically and experimentally confirm that the bending of Pd-Pd bond can breaks the asymmetric potential well and facilitate CO<sub>2</sub> adsorption. We have successfully synthesized a new class of Pd nanoneedles via a "close edges and open corners" process, with a magic angle of 60<sup>o</sup> between the main trunk and branch, and realized the selective CO<sub>2</sub> hydrogenation to formic acid (HCOOH) at room temperature in water. Impressively, a HCOOH productivity of ~250 mmol g<sup>-1</sup> in 100 h while maintaining HCOOH selectivity over 99%. This work bridges nanostructure design and catalytic application, which may open a new avenue for selective CO<sub>2</sub> conversion in an elegant manner.