Driving up the Electrocatalytic Performance for Carbon Dioxide Conversion through Interface Tuning in Graphene Oxide-Bismuth Oxide Nanocomposites.

The integration of graphene oxide (GO) into nanostructured BiO electrocatalysts for CO reduction (CORR) brings up remarkable improvements in terms of performance toward formic acid (HCOOH) production. The GO scaffold is able to facilitate electron transfers toward the active BiO phase, amending for the high metal oxide (MO) intrinsic electric resistance, resulting in activation of the CO with smaller overpotential. Herein, the structure of the GO-MO nanocomposite is tailored according to two synthetic protocols, giving rise to two different nanostructures, one featuring reduced GO (rGO) supporting Bi@BiO core-shell nanoparticles (NP) and the other GO supporting fully oxidized BiO NP. The two structures differentiate in terms of electrocatalytic behavior, suggesting the importance of constructing a suitable interface between the nanocarbon and the MO, as well as between MO and metal.