Efficient CO2 Electroreduction via Au-Complex Derived Carbon Nanotube Supported Au Nanoclusters.

The production of value-added chemicals from CO 2 electroreduction, using renewable energy, provides an appealing route to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. Challenges remain in designing and understanding of high-performance catalyst with restructuring-behavior under electrochemical conditions. Here, we demonstrate the intrinsic performance enhancement of an Au-complex derived carbon nanotube supported Au nanoclusters catalyst for CO 2 reduction. Such catalyst exhibits the impressive activity for yielding CO in both H-cell and flow cell reactors. Our experimental results reveal that the synthesis procedure via metal complex reconstructing on proper support would induce charge transfer between Au nanoclusters and carbon nanotubes, forming a rather electron-rich state for Au active sites, that greatly contributes to the CO 2 activation pathway.