The emission of CO2 has become an increasingly prominent issue. Electrochemical reduction of CO2 to value-added chemicals provides a promising strategy to mitigate energy shortage and achieve carbon neutrality. Two-dimensional (2D) materials are highly attractive for the fabrication of catalysts owing to their special electronic and geometric properties as well as a multitude of edge active sites. Various 2D materials have been proposed for synthesis and use in the conversion of CO2 to versatile carbonous products. This review presents the latest progress on various 2D materials with a focus on their synthesis and applications in the electrochemical reduction of CO2. Initially, the advantages of 2D materials for CO2 electro-reduction are briefly discussed. Subsequently, common methods for the synthesis of 2D materials and the role of these materials in the electrochemical reduction of CO2 are elaborated. Finally, some perspectives for future investigations of 2D materials for CO2 electro-reduction are proposed.
Using bulk metals as catalysts to get high efficiency in electro-reduction of CO 2 is ideal but challenging. Here, we report the coupling of bulk metal electrodes and a ternary ionic-liquid-based electrolyte, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate/1-dodecyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate/MeCN to realize highly efficient electro-reduction of CO 2 to CO. Over various bulk metal electrodes, the ternary electrolyte not only increases the current density but also suppresses the hydrogen evolution reaction to obtain a high Faradaic efficiency (FE) toward CO. FE CO could maintain ∼100% over a wide potential range, and metal electrodes showed very high stability in the ternary electrolyte. It is demonstrated that the aggregation behavior of the ternary electrolyte and the arrangement of two kinds of IL cations with different chain lengths in the electrochemical double layer not only increase the wettability to electrode and CO 2 adsorption but also extend the diffusion channel of H + , rendering the high current density and FE CO .
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