1. High Throughput Preparation of Ag-Zn Alloy Thin Films for the Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO 2 to CO.
- Author
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Sun, Jiameng, Yu, Bin, Yan, Xuejiao, Wang, Jianfeng, Tan, Fuquan, Yang, Wanfeng, Cheng, Guanhua, and Zhang, Zhonghua
- Subjects
CARBON dioxide ,THIN films ,ALLOYS ,CATALYTIC activity ,AQUEOUS electrolytes ,BINDING energy ,ALUMINUM-zinc alloys ,SILVER alloys - Abstract
Ag-Zn alloys are identified as highly active and selective electrocatalysts for CO
2 reduction reaction (CO2 RR), while how the phase composition of the alloy affects the catalytic performances has not been systematically studied yet. In this study, we fabricated a series of Ag-Zn alloy catalysts by magnetron co-sputtering and further explored their activity and selectivity towards CO2 electroreduction in an aqueous KHCO3 electrolyte. The different Ag-Zn alloys involve one or more phases of Ag, AgZn, Ag5 Zn8 , AgZn3, and Zn. For all the catalysts, CO is the main product, likely due to the weak CO binding energy on the catalyst surface. The Ag5 Zn8 and AgZn3 catalysts show a higher CO selectivity than that of pure Zn due to the synergistic effect of Ag and Zn, while the pure Ag catalyst exhibits the highest CO selectivity. Zn alloying improves the catalytic activity and reaction kinetics of CO2 RR, and the AgZn3 catalyst shows the highest apparent electrocatalytic activity. This work found that the activity and selectivity of CO2 RR are highly dependent on the element concentrations and phase compositions, which is inspiring to explore Ag-Zn alloy catalysts with promising CO2 RR properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2022
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