Survey of nanostructured transition metal phosphide catalysts for carbon dioxide reduction

Previous reports show a no. of nanostructured transition metal phosphides (e.g. Ni_2P, MoP, FeP, WP and CoP) as effective Earth-abundant alternatives to Pt for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) via electrochem. and/or photochem. redn. of water. We now present a comprehensive study of these and other new phosphides for the electrocatalytic carbon dioxide redn. (CO2R). We examine the effect of surface chem. compn. and electronic structure on the selectivity and activity of the catalysts towards CO2R, det. the HER behavior under CO2R conditions, and investigate the trends in product distribution and faradaic efficiencies as a function of compn., potential and supporting electrolyte.