Highly active conversion of CO2 to CO on AuCuB materials

The electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction is an attractive solution for converting CO2 into reusable chemicals. However, the low activity of the catalysts restricts its widespread application for conversion. This study uses a simple one-pot method to prepare B-doped AuCu alloy (AuCuB) materials. AuCuB-400 demonstrated a superior faradaic efficiency (FE) for CO [99% at -1.16 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)], whereas the FECO of AuCu was much lower (42%). Operando electrochemical Raman spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations revealed that incorporating B could tune the electronic structure of AuCu to promote the adsorption of CO intermediates, thus facilitating the conversion of CO2 to CO. These findings will provide a good approach for designing highly active alloy catalysts for converting CO2 to CO.