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Understanding the Role of Functional Groups in Polymeric Binder for Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Reduction on Gold Nanoparticles
Author(s) -
Lee Ji Hoon,
Kattel Shyam,
Xie Zhenhua,
Tackett Brian M.,
Wang Jiajun,
Liu ChangJun,
Chen Jingguang G.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201804762
Subject(s) - materials science , catalysis , electrochemistry , density functional theory , faraday efficiency , electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide , colloidal gold , chemical engineering , carbon dioxide , nanoparticle , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , chemistry , electrode , computational chemistry , carbon monoxide , engineering
Electrochemical CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) is one of the promising strategies for converting CO 2 to value‐added chemicals. Gold (Au) catalysts are considered to be the best benchmarking materials for CO 2 RR to produce CO. In this work, the role of different functional groups of polymeric binders on CO 2 RR over Au catalysts is systematically investigated by combined experimental measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Especially, it is revealed that the functional groups can play a role in suppressing the undesired hydrogen evolution reaction, the main competing reaction against CO 2 RR, thus enabling more catalytic active sites to be available for CO 2 RR and enhancing the CO 2 RR activity. Consistent with the DFT prediction, fluorine (F)‐containing functional groups in the F‐rich polytetrafluoroethylene binder lead to a high Faradaic efficiency (≈94.7%) of CO production. This study suggests a new strategy by optimizing polymeric binders for the selective CO 2 RR.