Tip carbon encapsulation customizes cationic enrichment and valence stabilization for low K+ acidic CO2 electroreduction

Abstract Acidic electrochemical CO 2 conversion is a promising alternative to overcome the low CO 2 utilization. However, over-reliance on highly concentrated K + to inhibit the hydrogen evolution reaction also causes (bi)carbonate precipitation to interfere with catalytic performance. In this work, under the screening and guidance of computational simulations, we present a carbon coated tip-like In 2 O 3 electrocatalyst for stable and efficient acidic CO 2 conversion to synthesize formic acid (HCOOH) with low K + concentration. The carbon layer protects the oxidized In species with higher intrinsic activity from reductive corrosion, and also peripherally formulates a tip-induced electric field to regulate the adverse H + attraction and desirable K + enrichment. In an acidic electrolyte at pH 0.94, only 0.1 M low K + is required to achieve a Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 98.9% at 300 mA cm −2 for HCOOH and a long-time stability of over100 h. By up-scaling the electrode into a 25 cm 2 electrolyzer setup, a total current of 7 A is recorded to sustain a durable HCOOH production of 291.6 mmol L −1 h −1 .