Nitrogen doped tin oxide nanostructured catalysts for selective electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to formate

Abstract

Tin/tin oxide materials are key electrocatalysts for selective conversion of CO2 to formate/formic acid. Herein we report a tin oxide material with nitrogen doping by using ammonia treatment at elevated temperature. The N doped material demonstrated enhanced electrocatalytic CO2 reduction activity, showing high Faradaic efficiency (90%) for formate at –0.65 V vs. RHE with partial current density of 4 mA/cm2. The catalysis was contributed to increased electron negativity of N atom compared to O atom. Additionally, the N-doped catalyst demonstrates sulfur tolerance with retained formate selectivity. The analysis after electrolysis shows that the catalyst structure partially converts to metallic Sn, and thus the combined Sn/N–SnO2 is the key for the active CO2 catalysis.