Study On Ordered Assembly Of Copper And Silver Nanowires And Electrochemical Catalytic Reduction Of Carbon Dioxide

With the rapid development of industrial technology,fossil fuels are being extensively mined and used,leading to an annual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration,resulting in a series of climate problems.To address the current climate issues,carbon dioxide can be effectively utilized by transforming it into valueadded products through electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction(CO2RR).The entire process converts electrical energy into chemical energy,which can be derived from green energy sources such as wind or solar energy,making it a green and sustainable process.In addition,CO2RR boasts low cost,controllable reaction pathways,and production of economically valuable products,making it one of the most promising methods for combating greenhouse effects.Currently,researchers are exploring methods to convert carbon dioxide into valueadded products such as carbon monoxide,formic acid,and methanol by fabricating suitable catalysts.Among various catalysts,transition metals such as copper and silver have good catalytic abilities.For example,copper-based catalysts can produce highvalue-added multi-carbon products(ethylene,ethanol,etc.)in CO2RR.However,the selectivity is not high,which has made optimizing copper-based catalysts a research hotspot.Nowadays,in addition to changing the catalyst composition,catalysts can also be treated with ordered processing,which can improve the rate and selectivity of the entire chemical reaction on a kinetic level.Therefore,this study initially removed impurities and replaced the surface active agent of synthesized copper nanowires.Subsequently,Langmuir-Blodgett(LB)technology was used to assemble these disordered nanowires into ordered nanowire catalysts.The performance of ordered and disordered copper nanowires in CO2RR was compared,yielding the following research results:We used LB technology to assemble copper nanowires into a single-layer ordered film and used this optimization strategy to improve the selectivity of copper nanowires in CO2RR.Firstly,we removed the particles in the synthesized copper nanowires,and then replaced the surfactant of copper nanowires with polyethylene pyrrolidone.Then,we used LB technology to assemble copper nanowires into an ordered single-layer nanowire film,and then prepared an unordered comparative sample with the same copper content per unit area of nanowire film.Finally,the ordered and unordered samples were tested in CO2RR,and the test results showed that this ordering strategy could improve the selectivity of copper nanowires in CO2RR for multi-carbon products.Silver nanowires are also an excellent candidate material for CO2RR catalysts.We also used LB technology to assemble silver nanowires into a single-layer ordered film and tested the effect of this ordered structure on silver nanowire CO2RR.Firstly,we synthesized silver nanowires,and then prepared ordered and unordered silver nanowire films using the same method.Finally,both were used for CO2RR testing.The test results showed that this ordering strategy could improve the selectivity of silver nanowires in CO2RR for carbon monoxide.We believe that this strategy of constructing ordered structures can be applied to CO2RR.