Silver Nanowire/Carbon Sheet Composites for Electrochemical Syngas Generation with Tunable H₂/CO Ratios

摘要

Generating syngas (H_(2) and CO mixture) from electrochemically reduced CO_(2) in an aqueous solution is one of the sustainable strategies utilizing atmospheric CO_(2) in value-added products. However, a conventional single-component metal catalyst, such as Ag, Au, or Zn, exhibits potential-dependent CO_(2) reduction selectivity, which could result in temporal variation of syngas composition and limit its use in large-scale electrochemical syngas production. Herein, we demonstrate the use of Ag nanowire (NW)/porous carbon sheet composite catalysts in the generation of syngas with tunable H_(2)/CO ratios having a large potential window to resist power fluctuation. These Ag NW/carbon sheet composite catalysts have a potential window increased by 10 times for generating syngas with the proper H_(2)/CO ratio (1.7–2.15) for the Fischer–Tropsch process and an increased syngas production rate of about 19 times compared to that of a Ag foil. Additionally, we tuned the H_(2)/CO ratio from ～2 to ～10 by adjusting only the quantity of the Ag NWs under the given electrode potential. We believe that our Ag NW/carbon sheet composite provides new possibilities for designing electrode structures with a large potential window and controlled CO_(2) reduction products in aqueous solutions.