Tuning selectivity of electrochemical reduction reaction of CO₂ by atomically dispersed Pt into SnO₂ nanoparticles

Electrochemical reduction of CO₂ into fuels offers an attractive approach to environmental and energy sustainability. Herein, we designed atomically dispersed Pt into SnO₂ catalyst (Pt atom/SnO₂). Such catalyst dramatically improves the adsorption performance of CO₂ and lowers the activation energy of CO₂. DFT calculations indicate that the doping of Pt in SnO₂ could induce charge redistribution and tune active electronic state, showing higher adsorption energy for intermediates CO₂*, HCOO* and HCOOH*, which is different from the Pt NPs loaded SnO₂ mainly for H₂ generation. As a result, a higher Faradaic efficiency (82.1 ± 1.4%) and the production rate (5105 μmol h⁻¹ cm⁻²) of HCOO^– are achieved at −1.2 V vs. RHE. Moreover, the current density and Faradaic efficiency of HCOO^– nearly remain unchanged in 8 h on the Pt atom/SnO₂, indicating its high stability. This work opens up a new avenue to tune product selectivity by atomically dispersed catalysts.