Reduced SnO2 Porous Nanowires with a High Density of Grain Boundaries as Catalysts for Efficient Electrochemical CO2‐into‐HCOOH Conversion. Issue 13 (23rd February 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kumar, Bijandra; Atla, Veerendra; Brian, J. Patrick; Kumari, Sudesh; Nguyen, Tu Quang; Sunkara, Mahendra; Spurgeon, Joshua M.
• Is Part Of: Angewandte Chemie international edition. Volume 56:Issue 13(2017)
• Page Start: 3645
• Page End: 3649
• Publication Date: 2017-02-23
• Subjects: CO2 reduction -- grain boundaries -- heterogeneous catalysts -- porous nanowires -- tin oxide; Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540
• DOI: 10.1002/anie.201612194
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1433-7851

Abstract

Abstract: Electrochemical conversion of CO2 into energy‐dense liquids, such as formic acid, is desirable as a hydrogen carrier and a chemical feedstock. SnO x is one of the few catalysts that reduce CO2 into formic acid with high selectivity but at high overpotential and low current density. We show that an electrochemically reduced SnO2 porous nanowire catalyst (Sn‐pNWs) with a high density of grain boundaries (GBs) exhibits an energy conversion efficiency of CO2 ‐into‐HCOOH higher than analogous catalysts. HCOOH formation begins at lower overpotential (350 mV) and reaches a steady Faradaic efficiency of ca. 80 % at only −0.8 V vs. RHE. A comparison with commercial SnO2 nanoparticles confirms that the improved CO2 reduction performance of Sn‐pNWs is due to the density of GBs within the porous structure, which introduce new catalytically active sites. Produced with a scalable plasma synthesis technology, the catalysts have potential for application in the CO2 conversion industry. Abstract : Against the grain : An electrochemically reduced SnO2 porous nanowire catalyst (Sn‐pNWs) with a high density of grain boundaries (GBs) has an energy conversion efficiency for CO2 ‐into‐HCOOH that is higher than analogous catalysts of reduced SnO2 ‐based materials. The high density of GBs within the porous structure is decisive.