Environmental impacts of continued CO2 production have led to an increased need for new methods of CO2 removal and energy development. Nanomaterials are of special interest for these applications, due to unique chemical and physical properties that allow for highly active surfaces. Here, we successfully synthesize alloy, core-shell and nanodendrite-branched Au nanoparticles in different shapes (nanoprisms, hexagonal nanoplates, and octahedral nanoparticles) by a universal and facile method for site-selective metal deposition. This strategy involves coupling galvanic replacement between Ag layers in Au@Ag core-shell nanoprisms and H2PdCl4 with a co-reduction process of silver and palladium ions. Synthesis of AgPd nanodendrite-tipped (4.14–11.47 wt% Pd) and -edged (25.25–31.01 wt% Pd) Au nanoparticles could be controlled simply by tuning the concentration of H2PdCl4. More importantly, these multi-component AgPd nanodendrite-modified Au nanoparticles show exceptional electrocatalytic performance for CO2 reduction. AgPd nanodendrite-edged Au nanoprisms show very low potentials (–0.66 V vs. SCE) for the reduction of CO2 to formic acid, and exhibit higher current efficiencies (49%) than Au, Au@Ag, and AgPd nanodendrite-tipped Au nanoprisms in aqueous electrolytes. Moreover, the AgPd nanodendrite-tipped and -edged Au nanoprisms show much higher selectivity and current efficiency for CO2 reduction to CO in organic electrolytes (85–87%) than Au and Au@Ag nanoprisms (43–64%). The high performance of these particles for CO2 reduction is attributed to the unique structure of AgPd nanodendrite-modified Au nanoparticles and synergistic effects among Ag, Pd, and Au. These results indicate that AgPd nanodendrite-modified Au nanoparticles show promising potential for application in CO2 conversion into useful fuels.

Thermally and photochemically activated diradicals: Applications to catalysis and nanoreagents for CO2 reduction

254th National Meeting (2017)

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