Advancements in Atomic Scaled Surface Structural Engineering on Electrocatalysts for Enhanced Hydrogen Evolution and CO₂ Reduction Reactions

Kuan-Wen WANG^1*

¹Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, National Central University, Taoyuan, Taiwan

* Presenter:Kuan-Wen WANG, email:kuanwen.wang@gmail.com

The growing global energy demand, coupled with humanity's impact on climate change, has ignited extensive research into renewable energy technologies. Currently, a pivotal area of emphasis centers on the advancement of materials and systems for electrocatalytic water splitting, particularly the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), offering a promising route to produce hydrogen—a high-density alternative energy source with zero-carbon emissions during combustion. Another crucial research in materials development focuses on catalysts for the electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR), utilizing sustainable energy to convert CO₂ into valuable fuels such as CO, alkanes, alcohol, carboxylic acids, and other hydrocarbons. For the development of catalysts, certain crucial questions regarding the structure-performance correlations of catalysts remain elusive and must be addressed to enable the relational design of CO₂RR and HER catalysts. For instance, (1) the impact of surface/structure engineering on catalysts that enhance HER has not been thoroughly explored. (2) The precise functions and chemical states of Cu during CO₂RR lack empirical understanding, primarily due to the absence of in situ or operando evidence.
Herein, we will apply the surface/structural engineering strategy for the Ru and Pd catalysts to enhance the HER performance in alkaline and acidic media, respectively [1,2]. Besides, the Cu@AuCu catalysts with CO₂ -CO conversion over Au will be introduced [3]. The In-Situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy will be applied in the Cu-In system to elucidate the evolution of Cu and In chemical states during CO₂RR [4]. We believe the in-depth findings in this study may shed new light on the development of efficient HER and CO₂RR catalysts.

Reference
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2. Y. Jia, T. H. Huang, S. Lin, L. Guo, Y. M. Yu, J. H. Wang, K. W. Wang*, and S. Dai*, Stable Pd–Cu Hydride Catalyst for Efficient Hydrogen Evolution, Nano Lett. 22 (2022) 1391-1397.
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4. Y. Jia, H. S. Hsu, W. C. Huang, D. W. Lee, S. W. Lee, T. Y. Chen, L. Zhou, J. H. Wang*, K. W. Wang*, S. Dai*, Probing the Roles of Indium Oxides on Copper Catalysts for Enhanced Selectivity during CO₂ -to-CO Electrochemical Reduction. Nano Lett. 23 (2023) 2262–2268.

Keywords: Hydrogen evolution reaction, CO₂ reduction reaction, Nanocatalysts, Energy materials