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Hauptverfasser: Fiorentin, Michele Re, Risplendi, Francesca, Salvini, Clara, Zeng, Juqin, Cicero, Giancarlo, Jónsson, Hannes
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.15124
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author Fiorentin, Michele Re
Risplendi, Francesca
Salvini, Clara
Zeng, Juqin
Cicero, Giancarlo
Jónsson, Hannes
author_facet Fiorentin, Michele Re
Risplendi, Francesca
Salvini, Clara
Zeng, Juqin
Cicero, Giancarlo
Jónsson, Hannes
contents Electrochemical reduction is a promising way to make use of CO$_2$ as feedstock for generating renewable fuel and valuable chemicals. Several metals can be used in the electrocatalyst to generate CO and formic acid but hydrogen formation is an unwanted side reaction that can even be dominant. The lack of selectivity is in general a significant problem, but silver-based electrocatalysts have been shown to be highly selective for CO with over over 90% faradaic efficiency when the applied voltage is below -1 V vs. RHE. Hydrogen formation is then insignificant and little formate is formed even though it is thermodynamically favored. We present calculations of the activation free energy for the various elementary steps as a function of applied voltage at the three low index facets, Ag(111), Ag(100) and Ag(110), as well as experimental measurements on polycrystalline electrodes, to identify the reason for this high selectivity. The formation of formic acid is suppressed because of the low coverage of adsorbed hydrogen and kinetic hindrance to the formation of the HCOO* intermediate, while *COOH, a key intermediate in CO formation, is thermodynamically unstable until the applied voltage reaches -1 V vs. RHE, at which point the kinetics for its formation are more favorable than for hydrogen. The calculated results are consistent with experimental measurements carried out for acidic conditions and provide an atomic scale insight into the high CO selectivity of silver-based electrocatalysts.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_15124
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Silver electrodes are highly selective for CO in CO$_2$ electroreduction due to interplay between voltage dependent kinetics and thermodynamics
Fiorentin, Michele Re
Risplendi, Francesca
Salvini, Clara
Zeng, Juqin
Cicero, Giancarlo
Jónsson, Hannes
Materials Science
Electrochemical reduction is a promising way to make use of CO$_2$ as feedstock for generating renewable fuel and valuable chemicals. Several metals can be used in the electrocatalyst to generate CO and formic acid but hydrogen formation is an unwanted side reaction that can even be dominant. The lack of selectivity is in general a significant problem, but silver-based electrocatalysts have been shown to be highly selective for CO with over over 90% faradaic efficiency when the applied voltage is below -1 V vs. RHE. Hydrogen formation is then insignificant and little formate is formed even though it is thermodynamically favored. We present calculations of the activation free energy for the various elementary steps as a function of applied voltage at the three low index facets, Ag(111), Ag(100) and Ag(110), as well as experimental measurements on polycrystalline electrodes, to identify the reason for this high selectivity. The formation of formic acid is suppressed because of the low coverage of adsorbed hydrogen and kinetic hindrance to the formation of the HCOO* intermediate, while *COOH, a key intermediate in CO formation, is thermodynamically unstable until the applied voltage reaches -1 V vs. RHE, at which point the kinetics for its formation are more favorable than for hydrogen. The calculated results are consistent with experimental measurements carried out for acidic conditions and provide an atomic scale insight into the high CO selectivity of silver-based electrocatalysts.
title Silver electrodes are highly selective for CO in CO$_2$ electroreduction due to interplay between voltage dependent kinetics and thermodynamics
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.15124