SnIn@InSnOx core@shell Nanoparticles as Electrocatalysts for CO2 Electroreduction to Formate

Laura C Pardo-Perez^a^,^d, Detre Teschner^b^,^c, Elena Willinger^b, Anna Fischer^d^,^e^,^f

^aInstitute of Chemistry, Technical University Berlin, Berlin, Germany

^bDepartment of Inorganic Chemistry, Fritz-Haber-Institute der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany

^cMax-Planck-Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Department of Heterogeneous Reactions, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, Stiftstraße, 34-36, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany

^dInstitute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Inorganic Functional Materials Lab, University of Freiburg, Germany

^eUniversity of Freiburg, Freiburg Materials Research Center (FMF), Stefan-Meier-Straße 21, Freiburg, 79104, Germany

^fUniversity of Freiburg, Freiburg Center for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies (FIT), Germany, Georges-Köhler-Allee, 105, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of nanoGe Fall Meeting19 (NFM19)

#SolCat19. (Photo)electrocatalysis for sustainable carbon utilization: mechanisms, methods, and reactor development

Berlin, Germany, 2019 November 3rd - 8th

Organizer: Matthew Mayer

Oral, Anna Fischer, presentation 187
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nfm.2019.187
Publication date: 18th July 2019

The electrochemical reduction of CO₂ (CO₂RR) has gained increasing attention in the last years for the production of sustainable fuels. To overcome the large overpotentials and poor product selectivity associated to that process, highly efficient and selective electrocatalysts are required. Recently, Sn/SnOx and In/InOx composites have been reported active for CO₂RR with high selectivity towards formate formation.

In the present work, we report on the activity and selectivity for CO₂RR of “SnIn@InSnOx” core@shell nanoparticles. As oxide derived catalysts, these complex nanostructures are formed in-situ by the reduction of tin-rich indium tin oxide (ITO_TR) thin films as bimetallic precatalyst precursor during CO₂RR.

The in-situ formed core@shell particles were found to catalyze the CO₂RR with a high mass activity of 546 A.g_In+Sn^-1 and a high formate faradaic efficiency of 80%; performance, which outperforms other Sn and In nanopßarticle based CO₂RR electrocatalysts reported so far.

In addition, ex-situ XPS analysis revealed that the presence of oxidized Sn and In species at the particles surface favors the formation of formate, revealing the importance of the oxide shell in the CO₂ reduction mechanism.

Finally, preconditioning, applied potential and gas atmosphere all influenced the particle size and restructuring dynamics during extended electrolysis of these complex structures, and hence their activity and selectivity, but in all cases the “SnIn@InSnO_x” core@shell structure was preserved throughout the different electrolysis conditions essayed.

Acknowledgements:

AF and LPP thanks the DFG UniCat cluster, the BIG-NSE, the BMBF (FKZ 01FP13033F) and the University of Freiburg for funding of this project. The authors thank Dr. C. Göbel and Dr. M. Rohloff for TEM measurements at the ZELMI facility of the TU Berlin.

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