Ion-mediated catalyst-electrolyte micro-environment modulation for enhancing electrocatalytic CO2 reduction on Ag nanowires

The electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) using renewable electricity emerges as a promising route for carbon neutralization, which has attracted numerous attentions in recent years. Regulating the micro-environment surrounding the reaction interface is of great importance for selective CO 2 electroreduction but remains challenging. This study employed the potassium chloride (KCl) electrolyte to regulate the micro-environment surrounding the silver nanowires (AgNWs) catalyst for efficient electrocatalytic CO 2 -to-CO conversion. Rather than focusing on the effect of individual anions or cations in CO 2 RR, as previously reviewed elsewhere, we herein elucidated the effect of both Cl − and K + on the micro-environment surrounding the active centers. Experimental results and DFT calculations revealed that K + could facilitate the CO 2 adsorption and activation, while Cl − could promote *COOH formation and suppress HER. Findings from this study may provide new insights into the micro-environment engineering for efficient CO 2 RR.