Graphical Abstract
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The electroreduction of CO2 to produce acetate is an extremely important and widely studied reaction. Herein, we report a heterogeneous electrocatalyst with Co3O4 nanoparticles immobilized on polyaniline (PANI) and cosupported by highly graphitized carbon (Co3O4/PANI/C) for the electroreduction of CO2 to acetate with high activity and selectivity. Remarkably enhanced acetate Faraday efficiency (ca. 62%) and current density (ca. 35 mA∙cm−2) were obtained under conditions of static electroreduction at −0.95 V in 0.5 M KOH aqueous electrolyte while suppressing the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction. The excellent performance of Co3O4/PANI/C is attributed to the tandem effect of the Co3O4 nanoparticles with abundant oxygen vacancies and the PANI heterogeneous interface in a favorable configuration. Density functional theory calculations revealed that the tandem configuration of Co3O4/PANI/C facilitates the rapid delivery of the key *CO intermediate formed on Co3O4 to PANI, which increases the coverage of the intermediate *CO on the electrocatalyst surface, thus promoting acetate production during the CO2 electroreduction reaction.
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