Facile fabrication of porous Sn-based catalysts for electrochemical CO2 reduction to HCOOH and syngas

Abstract

Porous Sn and Sn-based binary catalysts are facilely fabricated by an electrodeposition method. Varying conditions for Sn electrodeposition enables a control of Sn roughness, which exhibits a significant effect on catalytic performance for electrochemical CO2 reduction. At a specific applied potential, the porous Sn catalyst with relative roughness factor of 56.5 demonstrates a HCOOH Faradaic efficiency of 40.7% with a H2/CO ratio of 2.2. Further improvement of the HCOOH Faradaic efficiency to 59.2% is achieved by using a porous Sn0.29In0.71 catalyst. This catalyst also achieves a H2/CO ratio of 2.2, which can be used as syngas to produce value-added hydrocarbons.