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Oxidation-induced phase separation of carbon-supported CuAu nanoparticles for electrochemical reduction of CO2

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Abstract

Alloy nanostructures have been extensively exploited in both thermal and electrochemical catalysis due to their beneficial “synergetic effects” and being cost-effective. Understandings of the alloy nanostructures including phases, interfaces, and chemical composition are prerequisites for utilizing them as efficient electrocatalysts. Here, we use carbon-supported CuAu nanoparticles as a model catalyst to demonstrate the phase-separation induced variation of electrochemical performance for the CO2 reduction reaction. Driven by thermal oxidation, the CuOx phase gradually separates from the original CuAu nanoparticles, and different carbon supports, i.e., graphene vs. carbon nanotube lead to a reversed trend in the selectivity towards CO production. Through detailed structural and chemical analysis, we find the extent of phase separation holds the key to this variation and could be used as an effective method to tune the electrochemical properties of the alloy phase.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22172110). We thank the Haihe Laboratory of Sustainable Chemical Transformations for financial support. We thank the facility Center at the Institute of Molecular Plus at Tianjin University to use the transmission electron microscopes.

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  1. Yayun Guan and Yatian Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Molecular Plus, Department of Chemistry, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Yayun Guan, Yatian Liu, Qingye Ren, Zejian Dong & Langli Luo

  2. Haihe Laboratory of Sustainable Chemical Transformations, Tianjin, 300192, China

    Langli Luo

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  1. Yayun Guan
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  2. Yatian Liu
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  3. Qingye Ren
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  4. Zejian Dong
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Correspondence to Zejian Dong or Langli Luo.

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Guan, Y., Liu, Y., Ren, Q. et al. Oxidation-induced phase separation of carbon-supported CuAu nanoparticles for electrochemical reduction of CO2. Nano Res. 16, 2119–2125 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4935-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4935-9

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