Approaching 100% Selectivity at Low Potential on Ag for Electrochemical CO 2 Reduction to CO Using a Surface Additive
Abstract
We report the discovery of a quaternary ammonium surface additive for CO2 reduction on Ag surfaces that changes the Faradaic efficiency for CO from 25% on Ag foil to 97%, while increasing the current density for CO production by a factor of 9 from 0.14 to 1.21 mA/cm2 and reducing the current density for H2 production by a factor of 440 from 0.44 to 0.001 mA/cm2. Using ReaxFF reactive molecular dynamics, we find that the surface additive with the highest selectivity, dihexadecyldimethylammonium bromide, promotes substantial population of CO2 near the Ag surface along with sufficient H2O to activate the CO2. While a critical number of water molecules is required in the reduction of CO2 to CO, the trend in selectivity strongly correlates with the availability of CO2 molecules. We demonstrate that the ordering of the cationic modifiers plays a significant role around the active site, thus determining reaction selectivity. The dramatic improvement by addition of a simple surface additive suggests an additional strategy in electrocatalysis.
- Authors:
-
- Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, United States, Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, United States, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials & Devices, Joint International Research Laboratory of Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Soochow University, 199 Renai Road, Suzhou, Jiangsu 215123, PR China, Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis and Materials and Process Simulation Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, United States
- Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, United States, Department of Energy Technology, Korea Institute of Energy Technology, Naju 58322, Republic of Korea
- Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, United States, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis and Materials and Process Simulation Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, United States
- Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, United States, Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, United States
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1806370
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1812314; OSTI ID: 1825921
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0004993; AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- ACS Catalysis
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: ACS Catalysis Journal Volume: 11 Journal Issue: 15; Journal ID: ISSN 2155-5435
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; electrochemical CO2 reduction; surface additives; interfaces; silver; molecular dynamics; salts; molecules; selectivity; cations
Citation Formats
Buckley, Aya K., Cheng, Tao, Oh, Myoung Hwan, Su, Gregory M., Garrison, Jennifer, Utan, Sean W., Zhu, Chenhui, Toste, F. Dean, Goddard, III, William A., and Toma, Francesca M. Approaching 100% Selectivity at Low Potential on Ag for Electrochemical CO 2 Reduction to CO Using a Surface Additive. United States: N. p., 2021.
Web. doi:10.1021/acscatal.1c00830.
Buckley, Aya K., Cheng, Tao, Oh, Myoung Hwan, Su, Gregory M., Garrison, Jennifer, Utan, Sean W., Zhu, Chenhui, Toste, F. Dean, Goddard, III, William A., & Toma, Francesca M. Approaching 100% Selectivity at Low Potential on Ag for Electrochemical CO 2 Reduction to CO Using a Surface Additive. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.1c00830
Buckley, Aya K., Cheng, Tao, Oh, Myoung Hwan, Su, Gregory M., Garrison, Jennifer, Utan, Sean W., Zhu, Chenhui, Toste, F. Dean, Goddard, III, William A., and Toma, Francesca M. Thu .
"Approaching 100% Selectivity at Low Potential on Ag for Electrochemical CO 2 Reduction to CO Using a Surface Additive". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.1c00830.
@article{osti_1806370,
title = {Approaching 100% Selectivity at Low Potential on Ag for Electrochemical CO 2 Reduction to CO Using a Surface Additive},
author = {Buckley, Aya K. and Cheng, Tao and Oh, Myoung Hwan and Su, Gregory M. and Garrison, Jennifer and Utan, Sean W. and Zhu, Chenhui and Toste, F. Dean and Goddard, III, William A. and Toma, Francesca M.},
abstractNote = {We report the discovery of a quaternary ammonium surface additive for CO2 reduction on Ag surfaces that changes the Faradaic efficiency for CO from 25% on Ag foil to 97%, while increasing the current density for CO production by a factor of 9 from 0.14 to 1.21 mA/cm2 and reducing the current density for H2 production by a factor of 440 from 0.44 to 0.001 mA/cm2. Using ReaxFF reactive molecular dynamics, we find that the surface additive with the highest selectivity, dihexadecyldimethylammonium bromide, promotes substantial population of CO2 near the Ag surface along with sufficient H2O to activate the CO2. While a critical number of water molecules is required in the reduction of CO2 to CO, the trend in selectivity strongly correlates with the availability of CO2 molecules. We demonstrate that the ordering of the cationic modifiers plays a significant role around the active site, thus determining reaction selectivity. The dramatic improvement by addition of a simple surface additive suggests an additional strategy in electrocatalysis.},
doi = {10.1021/acscatal.1c00830},
journal = {ACS Catalysis},
number = 15,
volume = 11,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jul 08 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Thu Jul 08 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}
https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.1c00830
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