Enhanced Activity for CO₂ Electroreduction on a Highly Active and Stable Ternary Au-CDots-C₃N₄ Electrocatalyst

Abstract

Electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to carbon-containing fuels possesses the potential to solve the environmental issues caused by excess CO 2 in the atmosphere. Herein, we introduce a ternary Au-CDots-C 3 N 4 electrocatalyst for efficiently reducing CO 2 to CO. The ternary catalyst exhibited significantly enhanced activity and stability for CO 2 electroreduction in comparison with pure Au NPs. The Au-CDots-C 3 N 4 electrocatalyst demonstrates a high CO FE of ∼79.8% at −0.5 V and a 2.8-fold enhancement of current density (with the Au loading only 4 wt %) at −1.0 V relative to pure Au NPs. The DFT calculations and experimental observations indicate that the high activity toward CO2RR originates from the synergetic effect among Au NPs, CDots, and C 3 N 4 and the capability of H + and CO 2 adsorption from CDots. The long-term stability tests demonstrate that the electrocatalyst can be used for over 8 h without obvious deactivations and maintained its activity over 60 days under normal conditions.