Zinc oxides by thermal decomposition synthesis and parameters affecting electrocatalyst activity for CO2 reduction reaction
Elías Rodríguez-Jara,
Margherita Cavallo,
Ryosuke Nakazato,
Matthias Quintelier,
Keeko Matsumoto,
Joke Hadermann,
Jadra Mosa,
Francesca Bonino,
Kiyoharu Tadanaga,
Mario Aparicio,
Nataly Carolina Rosero-Navarro
Affiliations
Elías Rodríguez-Jara
Instituto de Cerámica y Vidrio (ICV), CSIC, Madrid 28049, Spain; Escuela de Doctorado UAM, Centro de Estudios de Posgrado, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. C/Francisco Tomás y Valiente, n° 2. Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
Margherita Cavallo
Department of Chemistry, NIS and INSTM Reference Centers, Università di Torino, Via Quarello 15/A, 10135 Torino, Italy
Ryosuke Nakazato
Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060–8628, Japan
Matthias Quintelier
EMAT, Department of Physics, University of Antwerp, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium
Keeko Matsumoto
Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060–8628, Japan
Joke Hadermann
EMAT, Department of Physics, University of Antwerp, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium
Jadra Mosa
Instituto de Cerámica y Vidrio (ICV), CSIC, Madrid 28049, Spain
Francesca Bonino
Department of Chemistry, NIS and INSTM Reference Centers, Università di Torino, Via Quarello 15/A, 10135 Torino, Italy
Kiyoharu Tadanaga
Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060–8628, Japan
Mario Aparicio
Instituto de Cerámica y Vidrio (ICV), CSIC, Madrid 28049, Spain
Nataly Carolina Rosero-Navarro
Instituto de Cerámica y Vidrio (ICV), CSIC, Madrid 28049, Spain; Corresponding author.
Electroreduction of CO2 to obtain fossil fuel-free energy products is a promising avenue reducing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Catalysts based on Au, Ag and Cu are frequently used. Others based on abundant and low-cost elements such as Zn also report catalytic activity. This work presents a scalable and simple synthesis method of catalysts based on ZnO structures by a controlled thermal decomposition process of Zinc acetate dehydrate. An in-depth study of how modifications of synthesis parameters may affect the final performance of the material as electrocatalyst in CO2RR is studied. It has been found that higher values of faradaic efficiency to CO evolution were found for samples synthesised at higher temperatures and higher heating ramp, reaching 69 % at -0.8 V vs RHE. It is of great importance to control over the parameters of the thermal decomposition process as they can greatly affect the final catalytic behaviour of the sample.
