Enhanced CO2 reduction activity of polyethylene glycol-modified Au nanoparticles prepared via liquid medium sputtering.

The electrochemical conversion of CO 2 into useful chemicals such as CO is a promising strategy to reduce CO 2 emissions from fossil fuel consumption and to mitigate the impacts of global warming. Although tremendous effort has been devoted to the practical use of CO 2 conversion techniques, these techniques still suffer from deficient catalytic activity toward CO 2 reduction as well as a complex catalyst synthesis procedure. In this study, an effective strategy to enhance the catalytic CO 2 reduction activity with a unique synthesis method is proposed. Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-coated Au nanoparticles supported on a porous carbon support are prepared by a facile, cost-effective, and biocompatible one-step sputtering deposition method, termed liquid medium sputtering. The use of PEG as a liquid medium is advantageous in terms of catalytic activity and stability by producing PEG layers on the Au surface. The prepared PEG-coated Au nanoparticle catalyst exhibits a CO Faradaic efficiency of 100% at −0.57 V RHE and excellent stability during 10 h of operation due to the high solubility of PEG for CO 2 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]