RESUMO
The electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2 RR) is a promising strategy for closing the carbon cycle. Increasing the current density ( J) for CO2 RR products is a critical requirement for the social implementation of this technology. Herein, nanoscale tin-oxide-modified copper-oxide foam is hybridized with a carbon-based gas-diffusion electrode (GDE). Using the resultant electrode, the Jformate is increased to -1152 mA cm-2 at -1.2 V versus RHE in 1 m KOH, which is the highest value for CO2 -to-formate electrolysis. The formate faradaic efficiency (FEformate ) reaches ≈99% at -0.6 V versus RHE. The achievement of ultra-high-rate formate production is attributable to the following factors: i) homogeneously-modified Sn atoms suppressing H2 evolution and ii) the hydrophobic carbon nanoparticles on GDEs penetrating the macroporous structure of the foam causing the increase in the thickness of triple-phase interface. Additionally, the FEformate remains at ≈70% under a high J of -1.0 A cm-2 for more than 20 h.
RESUMO
We previously reported that the hydrolysis of Ir3+ in homogeneous solution could be triggered by irradiation with light whose energy was larger than a threshold value. In this work, we demonstrated that, by introducing Fe2O3 particles into solution, the incident light energy-restriction for the photo-catalyzed hydrolysis could be broken and the hydrolysis occurred at the Fe2O3/solution interface. The photo-generated holes on the Fe2O3 surface played a key role in oxidizing Ir(iii) to Ir(iv) species and triggered the deposition of IrOx. We showed that this photo-catalyzed surface hydrolysis is a universal phenomenon that takes place on the surface of many n-type semiconductors such as Fe2O3, TiO2, and Ag3PO4. As IrOx is an efficient catalyst for oxygen evolution reaction, surface hydrolysis is a general, facile and efficient strategy to prepare semiconductor/IrOx composites, which can be used as anodic materials for photoelectrochemical water splitting.
