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Selectivity regulation of CO2 electroreduction on asymmetric AuAgCu tandem heterostructures

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Abstract

Rational design and synthesis of multimetallic nanostructures (NSs) are fundamentally important for electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR). Herein, a multi-step seed-mediated growth method is applied to synthesize asymmetric AuAgCu heterostructures using Au nanobipyramids as nucleation seeds, in which their composition and structures are well controlled. We find that the selectivity of C2 products for CO2RR could be effectively regulated by tandem catalysis and electronic effect over trimetallic AuAgCu heterostructures. Particularly, the Faraday efficiency toward ethanol could reach up to 37.5% at a potential of −0.8 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode over asymmetric Au1Ag1Cu5 heterostructures with segregated domains of three constituent metals. This work provides an efficient strategy for the synthesis of multicomponent architectures to boost their promising application in CO2RR.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22071172 and 52025025) and the National Key R&D Prrgram of China (No. 2017YFA0204503).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Yating Zhu, Zengqiang Gao, Zhicheng Zhang & Wenping Hu

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Yating Zhu, Zengqiang Gao, Zhicheng Zhang & Wenping Hu

  3. Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Ting Lin, Qinghua Zhang & Lin Gu

  4. Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing, 100190, China

    Ting Lin, Qinghua Zhang & Lin Gu

  5. School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Ting Lin, Qinghua Zhang & Lin Gu

  6. Institute for New Energy Materials and Low-Carbon Technologies, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Porous Materials, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, 300384, China

    Huiling Liu

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  1. Yating Zhu
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Correspondence to Zhicheng Zhang or Wenping Hu.

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Zhu, Y., Gao, Z., Zhang, Z. et al. Selectivity regulation of CO2 electroreduction on asymmetric AuAgCu tandem heterostructures. Nano Res. 15, 7861–7867 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4234-5

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