A New Phase Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) Activated Selective CO2 Reduction into Formate for Underwater Antifouling Glass.

Designing unique electrocatalysts that utilizes carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) for real applications is highly appreciated, yet still suffers from low selectivity, stability, and compatibility. Herein, we first report a new two-dimensional metastable-phase transparent conducting oxide: 1T phase indium tin oxide (m-ITOs) with the space group of P-3m1 (164), which is totally different from that of the stable cubic phase ITO (Ia-3 (206)). The internal indium tin catalytic pairs in m-ITOs trigger the strong electronic coupling, move up the p-band center, and stabilize the adsorption of HCOO* for increased formate production. In a liquid-phase flow cell, m-ITOs exhibit a high CO2RR electrocatalytic performance with the formate selectivity up to 93 ± 1.9% (83 ± 3.1% for c-SnInOx and 74 ± 0.6% for In2O3/SnO2) and remains 97% (58% for c-SnInOx and 60% for In2O3/SnO2) of catalytic activity after a 120,000 s stability test. Owing to the efficient formate formation with directly using the absorbed CO2 in water and high transparent property, m-ITOs exhibit excellent antifouling behavior of inhibiting Chlorella growth without reducing the transparency of itself, encouraging a promising application of observation windows in water.