Boosting CO₂ piezo-reduction via metal-support interactions in Au/ZnO based catalysts

Confronting the challenge of climate change necessitates innovative approaches for the reduction of CO₂ emissions. Metal-support interaction has been widely demonstrated to enable greatly improved performances in thermal-catalytic, photocatalytic and electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction. However, its applicability and specifically its role in the emerging piezo-electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction are unknown, severely hampering the utilizations of piezo-electrocatalysis in CO₂ conversion. Herein, by adopting Au particles supported on ZnO (Au/ZnO) as a paradigm, it is found that the metal-support interaction can remarkably improve the separation and transfer of piezo-carriers and enhance CO₂ adsorption. As a result, Au/ZnO demonstrates a substantially boosted activity for piezo-electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction and the optimal sample exhibits a 37.3% increase in CO yield compared to the pristine ZnO. The integration of metal-support interactions opens a new avenue to the design of advanced piezo-electrocatalysts for CO₂ reduction.