Facile synthesis of a bismuth nanostructure with enhanced selectivity for electrochemical conversion of CO2 to formate

Peilong Lu, Denglei Gao, Hongyan He, Qiaoxin Wang, Zhanjun Liu, Sobia Dipazir, Menglei Yuan, Wenyue Zu, Guangjin Zhang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

82 Scopus citations

Abstract

Electrochemically converting carbon dioxide (CO2) to formate offers a promising approach for energy conversion and storage. Bismuth is believed to be one of the promising candidates for CO2 electroreduction, but the poor selectivity and complexity of synthesis limit its real application on a large scale. In this work, a facile one-step-reduction method was developed to prepare a bismuth nanostructure in aqueous solution. Owing to its enhanced reactive sites and exposed crystal plane, the prepared Bi nanostructure exhibits excellent performance for CO2 electroreduction, which reaches the maximum faradaic efficiency for formate as high as 92% at a potential of -0.9 V versus a reversible hydrogen electrode. Additionally, the large current density and remarkable durability also reveal its high intrinsic CO2 electroreduction activity. The density functional theory calculation confirms that the formation of intermediate ∗OCHO that finally converts to formate is thermodynamically favorable on Bi high-index planes. We anticipate that such a facile synthesis strategy and excellent electrocatalytic performance of the Bi nanostructure will be easy to scale up, realizing its industrialization applications in CO2 electrochemical conversion.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7805-7812
Number of pages8
JournalNanoscale
Volume11
Issue number16
DOIs
StatePublished - 28 Apr 2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Royal Society of Chemistry.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science

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