Design of CuInS2 hollow nanostructures toward CO2 electroreduction

Abstract

The sharp rise of CO 2 in the atmosphere has become a potential threat to global climate, which results from the massive utilization of fossil fuel since the industry revolution. CO 2 electroreduction provides us a new possibility of utilizing CO 2 as a carbon feedstock for fuel and commercial chemicals generation. In this article, a new method is developed for synthesizing CuInS 2 hollow nanostructures through the Kirkendall effect. The CuInS 2 hollow nanostructures exhibit excellent catalytic activity for electrochemical reduction of CO 2 with particular high selectivity, achieving high faradaic efficiency for HCOOH of 72.8% at −0.7 V. To elucidate the mechanisms, operando electrochemical Raman spectroscopy is employed to examine the CO 2 reduction process. This work provides new insights into the design of hollow nanostructures toward electrocatalytic CO 2 conversion and offers us an effective and reliable way for real-time investigation of electrochemical CO 2 reduction reaction processes. CO 2 reduction, electrocatalyst, CuInS 2 , hollow nanostructure, Raman spectroscopy

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