title: Enhancing CO2Electroreduction with the Metal-Oxide Interface.
abstract: The electrochemical CO2reduction reaction (CO2RR) typically uses transition metals as the catalysts. To improve the efficiency, tremendous efforts have been dedicated to tuning the morphology, size, and structure of metal catalysts and employing electrolytes that enhance the adsorption of CO2. We report here a strategy to enhance CO2RR by constructing the metal-oxide interface. We demonstrate that Au-CeOxshows much higher activity and Faradaic efficiency than Au or CeOxalone for CO2RR. In situ scanning tunneling microscopy and synchrotron-radiation photoemission spectroscopy show that the Au-CeOxinterface is dominant in enhancing CO2adsorption and activation, which can be further promoted by the presence of hydroxyl groups. Density functional theory calculations indicate that the Au-CeOxinterface is the active site for CO2activation and the reduction to CO, where the synergy between Au and CeOxpromotes the stability of key carboxyl intermediate (*COOH) and thus facilitates CO2RR. Similar interface-enhanced CO2RR is further observed on Ag-CeOx, demonstrating the generality of the strategy for enhancing CO2RR.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, iChEM, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, China.
authors.forename: Dunfeng
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2472-7349
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, iChEM, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, iChEM, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Zhiwen
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1463-9617
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, iChEM, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, iChEM, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Xinfei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, iChEM, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Wugen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, iChEM, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Yangsheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China , Hefei 230029, China.
authors.forename: Junfa
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Chemistry Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory , Upton, New York 11973, United States.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8363-070X
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, iChEM, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, China.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1406-9717
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, iChEM, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, China.
authors.forename: Guoxiong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, iChEM, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Dalian 116023, China.
authors.forename: Xinhe
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9404-6429
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Bao