Coupled Stacking Faults in Silver Nanorods for CO2 Electroreduction.

The interaction of defects has been proven effective in regulating the mechanical properties of structural materials, while its influence on the physicochemical performance of functional materials has been rarely reported. Herein, we synthesized Ag nanorods with dense stacking faults and investigated how the defect interaction affects the catalytic properties. We found that the stacking faults can couple with each other to form a unique structure of opposite atoms with extortionately high tensile strain. Experimental and theoretical analyses reveal that the opposite-atom structure facilitates the adsorption and activation of CO2 molecules, thus improving the catalytic performance of the carbon dioxide electroreduction reaction (CO2RR). As a result, Ag nanorods achieve high CO partial current density (-11.87 mA cm-2 at -0.8 V vs RHE) and high Faraday efficiency (>95%), superior to most Ag-based catalysts. Our work indicates that the defect interaction is an effective means to boost the performance of functional materials.