BiVO4 as a precatalyst for CO2 electroreduction to formate at large current density

The large current density of electrochemical CO2 reduction towards industrial application is challenging. Herein, without strong acid and reductant, the synthesized BiVO4 with abundant oxygen vacancies (Ovs) exhibited a high formate Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 97.45% (-0.9 V) and a large partial current density of -45.82 mA/cm2 (-1.2 V). The good performance benefits from the reconstruction of BiVO4 to generate active metal Bi sites, which results in the electron redistribution to boost the OCHO* formation. In flow cells, near industrial current density of 183.94 mA/cm2 was achieved, with the FE of formate above 95% from 20 mA/cm2 to 180 mA/cm2. Our work provides a facily synthesized BiVO4 precatalyst for CO2 electroreduction.