Preparation of thiol-decorated Ag nanoparticles on N-doped carbon through resonant acoustic mixing for electrochemical CO2 reduction

The development of electrocatalysts with high selectivity and low overpotentials has been a prominent area of focus in electrochemical CO2 reduction (ECR) research. Supported metal nanoparticle (NP) has been received considerable interest due to the immense potential of remarkable activity, stability, and recyclability in ECR applications. However, the practical production of these supported metal NPs necessitates a facile and scalable approach. Addressing this challenge, the present study introduces a novel method for solid-state synthesis of Ag/C using resonant acoustic mixing (RAM). The RAM technique successfully facilitated the deposition of Ag nanoparticles onto n-doped carbon support, forming Ag/N-C catalysts. The as-prepared Ag electrocatalysts exhibited excellent dispersion and uniformity in terms of particle size. A thiol-decorated Ag electrocatalyst (Ag-Th/N-C) was prepared using a simple soaking method to establish an Ag-thiol interface enhancing catalytic activity caused by promoted electron transfer from Ag to CO2. Significantly, the Ag-Th/N-C catalyst demonstrated an improved Faradaic efficiency of 87.26% for the reduction of CO2 to CO at − 1.1 V versus RHE compared to the pristine Ag/C catalyst (55.45%).