Microenvironment engineering by targeted delivery of Ag nanoparticles for boosting electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 977 - 15
• Main Authors: Xu, Ting, Yang, Hao, Lu, Tianrui, Zhong, Rui, Lv, Jing-Jing, Zhu, Shaojun, Zhang, Mingming, Wang, Zheng-Jun, Yuan, Yifei, Li, Jun, Wang, Jichang, Jin, Huile, Pan, Shuang, Wang, Xin, Cheng, Tao, Wang, Shun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 24.01.2025; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/638/161/886; 639/638/77/886; 704/172/169/824; Carbon dioxide; Chemical reduction; Diffusion barriers; Diffusion layers; Diffusion rate; Electrolytes; Flood management; Gaseous diffusion; Humanities and Social Sciences; Microenvironments; multidisciplinary; Nanoparticles; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Silver
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56039-x

Creating and maintaining a favorable microenvironment for electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction reaction (eCO 2 RR) is challenging due to the vigorous interactions with both gas and electrolyte solution during the electrocatalysis. Herein, to boost the performance of eCO 2 RR, a unique synthetic method that deploys the in situ reduction of precoated precursors is developed to produce activated Ag nanoparticles (NPs) within the gas diffusion layer (GDL), where the thus-obtained Ag NPs-Skeleton can block direct contact between the active Ag sites and electrolyte. Specifically, compared to the conventional surface loading mode in the acidic media, our freestanding and binder free electrode can achieve obvious higher CO selectivity of 94%, CO production rate of 23.3 mol g −1 h −1 , single-pass CO 2 conversion of 58.6%, and enhanced long-term stability of 8 hours. Our study shows that delivering catalysts within the GDL does not only gain the desired physical protection from GDL skeleton to achieve a superior local microenvironment for more efficient pH-universal eCO 2 RR, but also manifests the pore structures to effectively address gas accumulation and flood issues. Creating and maintaining a superior microenvironment is challenging for electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction reaction. Here the authors report an in situ activation method to deliver silver nanoparticles within the gas diffusion layer, constructing a feasible and stable interfacial microenvironment.