Materials (Jul 2022)

Strained Lattice Gold-Copper Alloy Nanoparticles for Efficient Carbon Dioxide Electroreduction

  • Fangfang Chang,
  • Chenguang Wang,
  • Xueli Wu,
  • Yongpeng Liu,
  • Juncai Wei,
  • Zhengyu Bai,
  • Lin Yang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15145064
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 14
p. 5064

Abstract

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Electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into specific renewable fuels is an attractive way to mitigate the greenhouse effect and solve the energy crisis. AunCu100-n/C alloy nanoparticles (AunCu100−n/C NPs) with tunable compositions, a highly active crystal plane and a strained lattice were synthesized by the thermal solvent co-reduction method. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results show that AunCu100−n/C catalysts display a subtle lattice strain and dominant (111) crystal plane, which can be adjusted by the alloy composition. Electrochemical results show that AunCu100−n/C alloy catalysts for CO2 reduction display high catalytic activity; in particular, the Faradaic efficiency of Au75Cu25/C is up to 92.6% for CO at −0.7 V (vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode), which is related to lattice shrinkage and the active facet. This research provides a new strategy with which to design strong and active nanoalloy catalysts with lattice mismatch and main active surfaces for CO2 reduction reaction.

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