Highly active conversion of CO2 to CO on AuCuB materials

Abstract

The electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction is an attractive solution for converting CO₂ into reusable chemicals. However, the low activity of the catalysts restricts its widespread application for conversion. This study uses a simple one-pot method to prepare B-doped AuCu alloy (AuCuB) materials. AuCuB-400 demonstrated a superior faradaic efficiency (FE) for CO [99% at −1.16 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)], whereas the FE_CO of AuCu was much lower (42%). Operando electrochemical Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed that incorporating B could tune the electronic structure of AuCu to promote the adsorption of CO intermediates, thus facilitating the conversion of CO₂ to CO. These findings will provide a good approach for designing highly active alloy catalysts for converting CO₂ to CO.