Unlocking the Electrocatalytic Activity of Antimony for CO₂ Reduction by Two‐Dimensional Engineering of the Bulk Material

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are known to be useful in catalysis. Engineering 3D bulk materials into the 2D form can enhance the exposure of the active edge sites, which are believed to be the origin of the high catalytic activity. Reported herein is the production of 2D "few-layer" antimony (Sb) nanosheets by cathodic exfoliation. Application of this 2D engineering method turns Sb, an inactive material for CO reduction in its bulk form, into an active 2D electrocatalyst for reduction of CO to formate with high efficiency. The high activity is attributed to the exposure of a large number of catalytically active edge sites. Moreover, this cathodic exfoliation process can be coupled with the anodic exfoliation of graphite in a single-compartment cell for in situ production of a few-layer Sb nanosheets and graphene composite. The observed increased activity of this composite is attributed to the strong electronic interaction between graphene and Sb.

Promises of Main Group Metal–Based Nanostructured Materials for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction to Formate

“…Nanostructural engineering represents an effective strategy to solve this problem and promote the selectivity by exposing a large fraction of catalytically active sites. So far, there are only a few publications about its CO 2 RR application . Zhang and co‐workers prepared 2D few‐layered Sb nanosheets from the bulk crystal by cathodic exfoliation .…”

“…So far, there are only a few publications about its CO 2 RR application . Zhang and co‐workers prepared 2D few‐layered Sb nanosheets from the bulk crystal by cathodic exfoliation . When further hybridized with anodically exfoliated graphene nanosheets, the composite electrocatalyst demonstrated peak formate selectivity of 88.5%, partial formate current density up to >8 mA cm −2 , and impressive stability of >12 h. All these performance metrics were significantly improved over bulk Sb.…”

Emerging 2D Materials Produced via Electrochemistry

“…Although the electrochemical exfoliation is a newly developed methodology, it has received intensive attention from both academia and industry. It represents a most powerful strategy for large‐scaled production as best tradeoff in view of cost, quality and designed functionality, according to the recent studies on the exfoliated graphene and 2D semiconductors (such as transition metal sulfides/selenides, black phosphorus (BP), antimony, etc.). Many review papers have made nice summaries on the exfoliation methods and the produced materials .…”

Two‐Dimensional Electrocatalysts for Efficient Reduction of Carbon Dioxide

“…In this context, Li et al. utilized an electrochemical exfoliation method to produce 2D Sb NSs and found that the 2D engineering strategy could turn inactive bulk materials into active 2D electrocatalysts . Cyclic voltammograms under a CO 2 atmosphere clearly show an enhancement of both the onset potential for the reduction of CO 2 and catalytic current density on Sb NSs.…”