Two-Dimensional Fullerene Nanosheets Anchored with Ultrafine Bismuth Nanoparticles for Highly Selective Electrocatalytic CO₂ Reduction to HCOOH Over a Wide Potential Window

Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to produce formic acid (HCOOH) holds a significant economic value and has the potential for industrialization. Carbon-based fullerene nanosheets (C60 NS) are novel two-dimensional materials that have never been previously reported for application in the field of electrocatalysis. In this study, we introduce ultrafine bismuth nanoparticles (∼5 nm) onto few-layer C60 NS (Bi NPs-C60 NS) as catalysts for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to HCOOH. Bi NPs-C60 NS exhibits superior carrier transport capacity with a large active area and abundant reactive sites, leading to significantly enhanced electrocatalytic performance. The electrocatalytic test results revealed that the Bi NPs-C60 NS displays a high current density of −88.29 mA cm–2, which is one of the highest current densities in H-type cells so far. Moreover, outstanding Faraday efficiencies of HCOOH were also achieved (>90%) over a wide potential window with good stability. This work provides a new idea for the application of 2D fullerene-based materials in the field of electrocatalytic CO2 reduction.