Issue 2, 2018

Doping palladium with tellurium for the highly selective electrocatalytic reduction of aqueous CO2 to CO

Abstract

Designing highly selective and energy-efficient electrocatalysts to minimize the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction in the electrochemical reduction of aqueous CO2 remains a challenge. In this study, we report that doping Pd with a small amount of Te could selectively convert CO2 to CO with a low overpotential. The PdTe/few-layer graphene (FLG) catalyst with a Pd/Te molar ratio of 1 : 0.05 displayed a maximum CO faradaic efficiency of about 90% at −0.8 V (vs. a reversible hydrogen electrode, RHE), CO partial current density of 4.4 mA cm−2, and CO formation turnover frequency of 0.14 s−1 at −1.0 V (vs. a RHE), which were 3.7-, 4.3-, and 10-fold higher than those of a Pd/FLG catalyst, respectively. Density functional calculations showed that Te adatoms preferentially bind at the terrace sites of Pd, thereby suppressing undesired hydrogen evolution, whereas CO2 adsorption and activation occurred on the high index sites of Pd to produce CO.

Graphical abstract: Doping palladium with tellurium for the highly selective electrocatalytic reduction of aqueous CO2 to CO

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
10 Jul 2017
Accepted
03 Nov 2017
First published
06 Nov 2017
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 483-487

Doping palladium with tellurium for the highly selective electrocatalytic reduction of aqueous CO2 to CO

H. Tao, X. Sun, S. Back, Z. Han, Q. Zhu, Alex W. Robertson, T. Ma, Q. Fan, B. Han, Y. Jung and Z. Sun, Chem. Sci., 2018, 9, 483 DOI: 10.1039/C7SC03018E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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