College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, 1066 Xueyuan Ave., Shenzhen, China.
Nanoscale. 2019 Nov 21;11(45):22125-22133. doi: 10.1039/c9nr07863k.
Formic acid (or formate) is a liquid fuel and chemical feedstock, and it is considered as one of the most useful value-added reductive products from electrochemical CO2 conversion. Green metallic Bi nanosheets are believed be a promising candidate for formic acid production in CO2 electroreduction. However, the complexity of their preparation with a low yield hinders their practical application on a large scale. Herein, we report that by using a cheap and commonly used industrial ingot, phase-pure two-dimensional bismuth nanosheets are fabricated on a large scale by a rapid electrochemical cathodic exfoliation method. In addition to featuring abundant active sites, the obtained Bi nanosheets possess exceptionally high adsorption capacity to CO2 compared to its bulk counterpart, resulting in remarkable enhancement in CO2 electroreduction with high selectivity toward formic acid over a wide range of negative potentials, high current density and satisfactory durability. This facile strategy opens a promising avenue for massive fabrication of metallic Bi nanosheets with excellent electrocatalytic performance for large-scale commercial utilization of CO2.
甲酸（或甲酸盐）是一种液体燃料和化学原料，被认为是电化学 CO2 转化最有用的增值还原产物之一。绿色金属铋纳米片被认为是 CO2 电还原生产甲酸的有前途的候选材料。然而，其制备方法复杂，产量低，阻碍了其大规模实际应用。在此，我们报告了一种通过使用廉价且常用的工业锭，采用快速电化学阴极剥落法大规模制备相纯二维铋纳米片的方法。与块状铋相比，所获得的铋纳米片具有丰富的活性位点和对 CO2 的极高吸附能力，从而在很宽的负电势范围内、高电流密度和令人满意的耐久性条件下，对甲酸的 CO2 电还原具有显著的增强选择性。这种简便的策略为大规模制备具有优异电催化性能的金属铋纳米片开辟了一条有前途的途径，可用于 CO2 的大规模商业利用。
