Effect of Electrolyte on Carbon Dioxide Reduction of Silver Electrocatalyst

Abstract Large amounts of CO 2 have disrupted the natural carbon cycle. CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) is an effective strategy to reduce high concentration of CO 2 . Currently, the design of cathode catalyst is widespread to promote CO 2 RR. However, the effect of electrolyte on the catalytic reaction is fuzzy. Hence, silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) synthesized conveniently by a one-pot method was used to study the effects of different electrolytes on activity and selectivity in CO 2 RR. 0.1 M NaHCO 3 , KHCO 3 and KCl as electrolytes were applied into CO 2 RR. Efficient CO 2 RR performances are exposed to three electrolytes. The results show that the 0.1 M KHCO 3 is the optimal choice with the maximum catalytic activity and CO selectivity over 80%, which is better than many of the reports. Meanwhile, high concentration of KHCO 3 enhances the activity but poisons the active site with the weaken selectivity. This research affords a direction for acquainting oneself with the electrolyte and CO 2 RR to exploit the new energy.