Hybrid Nanostructures for Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

Producing fuels by reduction of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is one of the key solutions that would be a groundbreaking impact not only on global energy also environmental sustainability. The success of this revolutionary technology depends on products that forms from reduction of CO 2 . Therefore it is important to develop effective catalytic materials for facilitating the CO 2 reduction process. However, current catalysts do not have high efficiency and good selectivity. These existing catalysts are leading to multiple products. Major reported CO 2 reduction catalysts are limited with two-electron reduced products that results formation of CO and formate. The formation of hydrocarbon products that have multiple proton and electron transfers is still one of the major scientific challenges that needs to be addressed. Currently, there is no identified catalyst that can facilitate CO 2 reduction to selective hydrocarbon fuels with good efficiency due to the minute mechanistic understanding. Here, we will discuss tuning the hybrid structure of metal-oxide nanoparticles and two-dimensional (2D) layered materials as an efficient and selective CO 2 reduction electrocatalyst with the density functional theory calculations, which reveals the unusual electrocatalytic properties of hybrid structure creating intrinsic chemical and electronic coupling and assist to understand the mechanism beyond the process.