Electrodeposited Bi dendrites/2D black phosphorus nanosheets composite used for boosting formic acid production from CO2 electroreduction

Herein, 2D nonmetallic black phosphorus nanosheets (BP NSs) is first used as substrate for efficient electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to formic acid (HCOOH) with the maximum HCOOH yield rate and HCOOH faradaic efficiency (FE) of 22.7 μmol dm−3 h−1 and 25.8 % at −1.3 V, respectively. To enlarge the electrochemical application of BP NSs, we utilized BP NSs as catalyst support to load metal in CO2 electroreduction, Bi metal as an example is electrodeposited onto the surface of BP NSs to fabricate electrodeposited Bi dendrites/BP NSs composite (ED-Bi dendrites/BP NSs). ED-Bi dendrites/BP NSs severally achieve the highest HCOOH yield rate and HCOOH FE at lower potential at −1.0 V with 440 μmol dm−3 h−1 and 92 %, both significantly higher than ED-Bi dendrites without BP NSs. This work fully demonstrated that BP NSs is a good substrate to fabricate metal composites catalysts for improving CO2 electroreduction.