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Cu2Sb decorated Cu nanowire arrays for selective electrocatalytic CO2 to CO conversion

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Abstract

The advancement of cost-effective and selective electrocatalyst towards CO2 to CO conversion is crucial for renewable energy conversion and storage, thus to achieve carbon-neutral cycle in a sustainable manner. In this communication, we report that Cu2Sb decorated Cu nanowire arrays on Cu foil act as a highly active and selective electrocatalyst for CO2 to CO conversion. In CO2-saturated 0.1 M KHCO3, it achieves a high Faraday efficiency (FE) of 86.5% for CO, at −0.90 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). The H2/CO ratio is tunable from 0.08:1 to 5.9:1 by adjusting the potential. It is worth noting that HCOO− product was totally suppressed on such catalyst, compared with Sb counterpart. The improving selectivity for CO could be attributed to the bimetallic effect and nanowire arrays structure.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22072015) and the Foundation of Sichuan Department of Science and Technology (No. 2017FZ0079)

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Author notes

  1. Shiyong Mou and Yonghao Li contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, 610068, China

    Shiyong Mou & Xiaoli Xiong

  2. Chemical Synthesis and Pollution Control Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, School of Chemistry and Chemical engineering, China West Normal University, Nanchong, 637002, China

    Yonghao Li & Yonglan Luo

  3. Institute of Fundamental and Frontier Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China

    Luchao Yue, Jie Liang, Qian Liu, Tingshuai Li & Xuping Sun

  4. Green Catalysis Center, and College of Chemistry, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Siyu Lu

  5. Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science & Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia

    Abdullah M. Asiri

  6. Key Laboratory for Special Functional Materials of Ministry of Education, and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan University, Kaifeng, 475004, China

    Dongwei Ma

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  1. Shiyong Mou
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Correspondence to Xiaoli Xiong, Dongwei Ma or Xuping Sun.

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Mou, S., Li, Y., Yue, L. et al. Cu2Sb decorated Cu nanowire arrays for selective electrocatalytic CO2 to CO conversion. Nano Res. 14, 2831–2836 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3295-1

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