Nanocapillarity and Nanoconfinement Effects of Pipet-like Bismuth@Carbon Nanotubes for Highly Efficient Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00390
• Publication Date: 2021-03-12T20:25:59Z
• Authors: Wenjun Zhang; Songyuan Yang; Minghang Jiang; Yi Hu; Chaoquan Hu; Xiaoli Zhang; Zhong Jin
• Keywords: Reversible hydrogen electrode; Nanorod; Bismuth; Bimetallic strip

Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction is regarded as an intriguing route for producing renewable chemicals and fuels, but its development limited by the lack of highly efficient stable electrocatalysts. Herein, we propose pipet-like bismuth (Bi) nanorods semifilled in nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (Bi-NRs@NCNTs) selective electrocatalytic reduction. Benefited from prominent capillary confinement effects, Bi-NRs@NCNTs act nanoscale conveyors that can significantly facilitate mass transport, adsorption,and concentration reactants onto active sites, realizing rapid kinetics low cathodic polarization. The spatial encapsulation separation NCNT shells prevents self-aggregation surface oxidation Bi-NRs, increasing dispersity stability electrocatalyst. As a result, exhibit high activity durable catalytic CO2-to-formate conversion over wide potential range. Faradaic efficiency formate production reaches 90.9% at moderate applied −0.9 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE).