Phosphine-induced conversion from Au36 to Au32 for constructing a high-performance CO2RR catalyst

Taking Au36(CHT)24 (Au36 for short) as a precursor, a Au32(CHT)20(TFP) (Au32 for short) nanocluster is obtained with the aid of a phosphine-mediated approach. Structural analysis shows that Au32 is obtained by modifying and transforming the surface structure of the parent Au36 nanocluster, including the removal of a surface layer of the core structure and the rearrangement of the surface motifs. Most importantly, this structural transformation results in a change in the position of some of the surface motifs, thus exposing the active domain with bare core metal atoms. The electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction is introduced to investigate the effect of the modification of the surface structure on its properties. The results show that the modified structure of Au32 exhibits superior catalytic activity with a faradaic efficiency (for CO) of 97.7% at −0.8 V.