Ordered cone-structured tin directly grown on carbon paper as efficient electrocatalyst for CO_(2) electrochemical reduction to formate

摘要

The conversion of carbon dioxide to chemicals by the electrochemical reactions(ERC)is an efficient solution to the current energy crisis and excess CO_(2) emissions.It is still a great challenge and of significance to synthesize a highly selective,efficient,and non-noble metal electrocatalyst that facilitates the ERC reaction.A novel triton X-100(C_(14)H_(22)O(C_(2)H_(4)O)n)assisted electrodeposition method was developed to synthesize the ordered cone-structured tin(OCSn)electrocatalysts with controllable morphology and structure.The results suggest that Triton X-100 plays an important role in directing the structure of the Sn electrocatalysts during the electrodeposition process.The OCSn synthesized at 60 m A cm^(-2) achieves the best performances.It selectively catalyzes the ERC on the onset potential about 110 m V lower than Sn synthesized without Triton X-100.In 0.5 M Na HCO_(3),high faradaic efficiency(92%)for formate product on OCSn has been achieved.More prominently,the catalyst presents excellent stability,showing no performance deterioration during 30 h electrolysis.This work provides an efficient,green,and scalable synthesis method of the electrocatalyst for CO_(2) reduction to formate.