Morphology-controllable ZnO catalysts enriched with oxygen-vacancies for boosting CO2 electroreduction to CO

Electrochemical CO 2 reduction (ECR) is a promising approach to realize carbon neutral and energy sustainability , which is still impeded by the low selectivity and activity for application. Defect engineering of electrocatalysts , especially oxygen vacancy introduction into metal oxide materials has been proved to be an effective strategy to satisfy thermodynamic condition and improve kinetics for ECR. Herein, we synthesize oxygen vacancy-enriched ZnO nanoparticle catalysts for efficient ECR through electrospinning technique using particular precursor. Characterizations reveal that the utilization of Zn(CH 3 COO) 2 precursor contributes to the generation of oxygen vacancies in ZnO catalysts which enhances CO 2 adsorption and stabilizes the intermediate. In a flow cell configuration, a current density of 150 mA cm −2 and a CO Faradic efficiency > 80% can be obtained for ZnO nanoparticle catalysts (p-ZnO-800), which is meaningful for industry.