Thermally Evaporated Ag–Au Bimetallic Catalysts for Efficient Electrochemical CO2 Reduction

Abstract

AbstractCO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) has indispensable significance for carbon recycling and renewable energy production. As typical electrochemical catalysts, Au and Ag show relatively high reaction activity and selectivity in CO2RR. In this study, a series of Ag–Au bimetallic catalysts are designed and synthesized through the thermal evaporation method for efficient yet massive production of electrochemical catalysts. The Ag–Au catalysts show significantly enhanced activity and selectivity in CO2RR, which is mainly attributed to the increased grain boundaries with well‐dispersed single Ag atoms. After the optimization, Au20Ag10 exhibits the best performance with a CO Faraday efficiency of 89% at −0.9 V (vs the reversible hydrogen electrode) with good stability.