Acidic CO2-to-HCOOH electrolysis with industrial-level current on phase engineered tin sulfide

Haifeng Shen, Huanyu Jin, Haobo Li, Herui Wang, Jingjing Duan, Yan Jiao and Shi-Zhang Qiao ()
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Haifeng Shen: The University of Adelaide
Huanyu Jin: The University of Adelaide
Haobo Li: The University of Adelaide
Herui Wang: Nanjing University of Science and Technology
Jingjing Duan: Nanjing University of Science and Technology
Yan Jiao: The University of Adelaide
Shi-Zhang Qiao: The University of Adelaide

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Acidic CO2-to-HCOOH electrolysis represents a sustainable route for value-added CO2 transformations. However, competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acid remains a great challenge for selective CO2-to-HCOOH production, especially in industrial-level current densities. Main group metal sulfides derived S-doped metals have demonstrated enhanced CO2-to-HCOOH selectivity in alkaline and neutral media by suppressing HER and tuning CO2 reduction intermediates. Yet stabilizing these derived sulfur dopants on metal surfaces at large reductive potentials for industrial-level HCOOH production is still challenging in acidic medium. Herein, we report a phase-engineered tin sulfide pre-catalyst (π-SnS) with uniform rhombic dodecahedron structure that can derive metallic Sn catalyst with stabilized sulfur dopants for selective acidic CO2-to-HCOOH electrolysis at industrial-level current densities. In situ characterizations and theoretical calculations reveal the π-SnS has stronger intrinsic Sn-S binding strength than the conventional phase, facilitating the stabilization of residual sulfur species in the Sn subsurface. These dopants effectively modulate the CO2RR intermediates coverage in acidic medium by enhancing *OCHO intermediate adsorption and weakening *H binding. As a result, the derived catalyst (Sn(S)-H) demonstrates significantly high Faradaic efficiency (92.15 %) and carbon efficiency (36.43 %) to HCOOH at industrial current densities (up to −1 A cm−2) in acidic medium.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38497-3

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