Assembling Metal Organic Layer Composites for High-Performance Electrocatalytic CO₂ Reduction to Formate

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Electrochemistry
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• 2D metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) offer high flexibility and accessible active sites for catalysis.
• Developing efficient electrocatalysts is crucial for CO2 reduction and sustainable energy solutions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To construct a freestanding 2D metal-organic layer (MOL) with a kagome dual lattice for immobilizing guest species.
• To investigate the electrocatalytic performance of bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) nanowires grown on MOLs for CO2 electroreduction.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of a 2D MOL with abundant surface oxygenate groups.
• Solvothermal growth of tetragonal Bi2O3 nanowires on the MOL.
• Ex-situ electron microscopy for structural analysis.
• Electrochemical testing of Bi2O3/MOL composite for CO2 electroreduction.

Main Results:

• Uniform growth of Bi2O3 nanowires on the 2D MOL.
• Bi2O3/MOL achieved a specific current of 2.3 A mgBi−1 and >85% Faradaic efficiency for formate production.
• The composite exhibited excellent performance over a wide potential range, outperforming Bi2O3/UiO and Bi2O3/Acetylene Black.

Conclusions:

• The post-synthetic modification strategy using 2D MOLs is effective for developing high-performance electrocatalysts.
• MOL-based composites show significant potential for optimizing CO2 electroreduction.
• This approach can be extended to create versatile MOL composites for various catalytic applications.