Promoting Electrocatalytic CO <sub>2</sub> Reduction via Oxophilic Amorphous Metal Oxide‐Mediated Interfacial Water Activation and Structure Evolution

Interfacial water serves as the intrinsic proton source for CO<sub>2</sub> hydrogenation, yet synchronizing its activation with on-demand active hydrogen (<sup>*</sup>H) supply without triggering the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) remains challenging. Herein, we construct an oxophilic amorphous MnO<sub>x</sub> overlayer on Ag to regulate the interfacial water network. In situ characterization and theoretical calculations demonstrate that under over 45% of interfacial water reorganizes into an ordered four-coordinate hydrogen-bonded (4-HB-H<sub>2</sub>O) structure under operation, facilitating targeted proton transfer to CO<sub>2</sub> reduction intermediates. The distorted Mn-O polyhedra lower the water dissociation barrier by 0.54 eV while raising the HER barrier by 0.61 eV. It achieves a CO production rate of 12.8 mol h<sup>-1</sup> g<sup>-1</sup> and 68.6% Faraday efficiency (FE) at -1000 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> and maintains >95% FE<sub>CO</sub> over 500 h at -200 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>. It also enables efficient nitrate-to-ammonia conversion with the FE of 88.5 %, and the maximum NH<sub>3</sub> production rate is 831.4 mmol h<sup>-1</sup> g<sup>-1</sup>, and a Zn-CO<sub>2</sub> rechargeable battery with FE<sub>CO</sub> of 98.5% and power density of 2.1 mW cm<sup>-2</sup>. This study underscores the amorphous metal oxide-mediated interfacial water activation as a versatile and scalable strategy for enhancing selectivity in water-involved electrocatalytic reactions.

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Small
Published
2026-01-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202514230
Primary Topic
Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
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article
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article

Promoting Electrocatalytic CO 2 Reduction via Oxophilic Amorphous Metal Oxide‐Mediated Interfacial Water Activation and Structure Evolution

Shanhe Gong, Guangtong Hai, Wenbo Wang, Guoxing Zhu et al.
Small
Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
article

Promoting Electrocatalytic CO 2 Reduction via Oxophilic Amorphous Metal Oxide‐Mediated Interfacial Water Activation and Structure Evolution

Shanhe Gong, Guangtong Hai, Wenbo Wang, Guoxing Zhu, Xiaomeng Lv, Minghui Zhu, Junpeng Huang, Xiaozhen Zhang
article en

Abstract

Interfacial water serves as the intrinsic proton source for CO<sub>2</sub> hydrogenation, yet synchronizing its activation with on-demand active hydrogen (<sup>*</sup>H) supply without triggering the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) remains challenging. Herein, we construct an oxophilic amorphous MnO<sub>x</sub> overlayer on Ag to regulate the interfacial water network. In situ characterization and theoretical calculations demonstrate that under over 45% of interfacial water reorganizes into an ordered four-coordinate hydrogen-bonded (4-HB-H<sub>2</sub>O) structure under operation, facilitating targeted proton transfer to CO<sub>2</sub> reduction intermediates. The distorted Mn-O polyhedra lower the water dissociation barrier by 0.54 eV while raising the HER barrier by 0.61 eV. It achieves a CO production rate of 12.8 mol h<sup>-1</sup> g<sup>-1</sup> and 68.6% Faraday efficiency (FE) at -1000 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> and maintains >95% FE<sub>CO</sub> over 500 h at -200 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>. It also enables efficient nitrate-to-ammonia conversion with the FE of 88.5 %, and the maximum NH<sub>3</sub> production rate is 831.4 mmol h<sup>-1</sup> g<sup>-1</sup>, and a Zn-CO<sub>2</sub> rechargeable battery with FE<sub>CO</sub> of 98.5% and power density of 2.1 mW cm<sup>-2</sup>. This study underscores the amorphous metal oxide-mediated interfacial water activation as a versatile and scalable strategy for enhancing selectivity in water-involved electrocatalytic reactions.

SmallVol. 22(14)
Jiangsu University (CN), Quzhou University (CN), State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering (CN)
Clean water and sanitation
Openalex Percentile: Top 87%
Ammonia Synthesis and Nitrogen Reduction
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Promoting Electrocatalytic CO <sub>2</sub> Reduction via Oxophilic Amorphous Metal Oxide‐Mediated Interfacial Water Activation and Structure Evolution — Shanhe Gong, Guangtong Hai, et al. · Small (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS