Electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to fuels and chemicals represents a promising pathway for CO2 utilization and energy conversion. However, metal-based catalysts often suffer from diminished selectivity in the direct reduction of CO2 to acetate due to suboptimal intermediate adsorption energy imposed by the linear scaling relationship of d-band theory. We describe a deposition-etching strategy that tunes the sp2/sp3 hybridization of carbon in diamond to tune the adsorption equilibrium of intermediates for CO2 reduction to acetate, which circumvents the constraints of the d-band electrons.
Read more in our recent publication at Nature Commun:
Selective CO2 reduction to acetate via controlled sp2/sp3 carbon hybridization
Nature Commun: Selective CO2 reduction to acetate via controlled sp2/sp3 carbon hybridization
Posted in Research.