Electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 recently emerged as a viable solution in view of changing the common belief and considering carbon dioxide as a valuable reactant instead of a waste product. In this view, we herein propose the one-step synthesis of gold nanostructures of different morphologies grown on fluorine-doped tin oxide electrodes by means of pulsed-laser deposition. The resulting cathodes are able to produce syngas mixtures of different compositions at overpotentials as low as 0.31 V in CO2-presaturated aqueous media. Insights into the correlation between the structural features/morphology of the cathodes and their catalytic activity are also provided, confirming recent reports on the remarkable sensitivity toward CO production for gold electrodes exposing undercoordinated sites and facets.

Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences University of Ferrara Via Luigi Borsari 46 44121 Ferrara Italy

Department of Structure and Nano Micromechanics of Materials Max Planck Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH Max Planck Straße 1 40237 Düsseldorf Germany

Micro and Nanostructured Materials Laboratory Department of Energy Politecnico di Milano Via Ponzio 34 3 20133 Milano Italy

Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials Faculty of Science Palacký University Šlechtitelů 27 78371 Olomouc Czech Republic

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