Structural reconstruction of BiPbO2Br nanosheets for electrochemical CO2 reduction to formate

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 to value-added products represents a promising strategy to store renewable energy and realize global carbon neutrality. Bi-based materials have attracted extensive attention for formate production from CO2 reduction. Herein, we employ BiPbO2Br nanosheets as the bimetallic oxyhalide precursor to prepare a reconstructed Bi–Pb composite catalyst by electroreduction. The resultant catalyst exhibits impressive performance for formate production, including a high partial current density (40 mA cm−2 at −1.0 V), a high faradaic efficiency (96.6% at −0.9 V), a high energy conversion efficiency (>50% from −0.8 to −1.1 V), and good stability. As compared with the monometallic Bi and Pb counterparts, the Bi–Pb composite catalyst demonstrates superior intrinsic performance, which is attributed to the multiphase composites and abundant heterogeneous interfaces derived from electroreduction induced structural reconstruction of BiPbO2Br. This work offers an attractive strategy to further improve the performance of Bi catalysts for CO2 reduction to formate.