Title: Catalysis Selects Its Own Favorite Facets

Authors: Ruixuan Qin, Nanfeng Zheng

Abstract: 

The exposed surface of metal catalysts plays a crucial role in determining their overall (electro)catalytic performance, such as activity and selectivity, creating the so-called “facet effect.” The facet effect has been recently well-demonstrated in the metal-catalyzed electroreduction reaction of CO₂ (CO₂RR). For example, a small portion of Cu high-index stepped facets is demonstrated as the main contributor to the overall CO₂RR activity.¹ Studies based on both crystalline and polycrystalline Cu catalysts also reveal that different facets of Cu vary the product selectivity. Although Cu(111) produces more CH₄ than Cu(100), stepped facets exhibit an activity one order higher than that of Cu(111) toward the C-C coupled products.² The optimized facets for CO₂RR vary with metal compositions and experimental conditions as well.³ For instance, the high-index facets of Bi, such as (012) and (104), exhibit high performance for the selective production of formate.⁴ Both single-crystal and thin-film studies revealed that Ag(110) having the larger density of undercoordinated sites exhibited higher activity than Ag(111) and Ag(100) in CO₂ reduction to CO.5, 6

Full-Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451929419303201