Promoting electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to formate via sulfur-boosting water activation on indium surfaces

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 892 - 10
• Main Authors: Ma, Wenchao, Xie, Shunji, Zhang, Xia-Guang, Sun, Fanfei, Kang, Jincan, Jiang, Zheng, Zhang, Qinghong, Wu, De-Yin, Wang, Ye
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 21.02.2019; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/301/299/886; 639/638/263/915; 639/638/77/887; Activation; Aqueous solutions; Carbon dioxide; Catalysis; Catalysts; Chemical reduction; Current density; Efficiency; Electrocatalysts; Fuels; Greenhouse gases; Humanities and Social Sciences; Indium; multidisciplinary; Organic chemistry; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sulfur
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-08805-x

Electrocatalytic reduction of CO 2 to fuels and chemicals is one of the most attractive routes for CO 2 utilization. Current catalysts suffer from low faradaic efficiency of a CO 2 -reduction product at high current density (or reaction rate). Here, we report that a sulfur-doped indium catalyst exhibits high faradaic efficiency of formate (>85%) in a broad range of current density (25–100 mA cm −2 ) for electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction in aqueous media. The formation rate of formate reaches 1449 μmol h −1 cm −2 with 93% faradaic efficiency, the highest value reported to date. Our studies suggest that sulfur accelerates CO 2 reduction by a unique mechanism. Sulfur enhances the activation of water, forming hydrogen species that can readily react with CO 2 to produce formate. The promoting effect of chalcogen modifiers can be extended to other metal catalysts. This work offers a simple and useful strategy for designing both active and selective electrocatalysts for CO 2 reduction. CO 2 conversion to liquid fuels provides an appealing means to remove the greenhouse gas, although it is challenging to find materials that are both active and selective. Here, authors show sulfur-doped indium to be a highly active and selective electrocatalyst that transforms CO 2 into formate.