English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Zendy Plus

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Zendy Tools

Zendy Open

Conversion of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) to value-added products is an important challenge for sustainable energy research, and nanomaterials offer a broad class of heterogeneous catalysts for such transformations. Here we report a molecular surface functionalization approach to tuning gold nanoparticle (Au NP) electrocatalysts for reduction of CO2 to CO. The N-heterocyclic (NHC) carbene-functionalized Au NP catalyst exhibits improved faradaic efficiency (FE = 83%) for reduction of CO2 to CO in water at neutral pH at an overpotential of 0.46 V with a 7.6-fold increase in current density compared to that of the parent Au NP (FE = 53%). Tafel plots of the NHC carbene-functionalized Au NP (72 mV/decade) vs parent Au NP (138 mV/decade) systems further show that the molecular ligand influences mechanistic pathways for CO2 reduction. The results establish molecular surface functionalization as a complementary approach to size, shape, composition, and defect control for nanoparticle catalyst design.

A Molecular Surface Functionalization Approach to Tuning Nanoparticle Electrocatalysts for Carbon Dioxide Reduction