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Updated: Mar 15, 2026
Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Metallic tin quantum sheets confined in graphene toward high-efficiency carbon dioxide electroreduction
Fengcai Lei1, Wei Liu2, Yongfu Sun1,3
1Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, University of Science &Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
Abstract:
Ultrathin metal layers can be highly active carbon dioxide electroreduction catalysts, but may also be prone to oxidation. Here we construct a model of graphene confined ultrathin layers of highly reactive metals, taking the synthetic highly reactive tin quantum sheets confined in graphene as an example. The higher electrochemical active area ensures 9 times larger carbon dioxide adsorption capacity relative to bulk tin, while the highly-conductive graphene favours rate-determining electron transfer from carbon dioxide to its radical anion. The lowered tin-tin coordination numbers, revealed by X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy, enable tin quantum sheets confined in graphene to efficiently stabilize the carbon dioxide radical anion, verified by 0.13 volts lowered potential of hydroxyl ion adsorption compared with bulk tin. Hence, the tin quantum sheets confined in graphene show enhanced electrocatalytic activity and stability. This work may provide a promising lead for designing efficient and robust catalysts for electrolytic fuel synthesis.
