Selective CO2 reduction on a polycrystalline Ag electrode enhanced by anodization treatment

Electrochemical reduction of CO2 to CO on polycrystalline silver (Ag) was greatly improved by a simple anodization treatment. A CO faradaic efficiency of 92.8% was achieved at an overpotential of 0.50 V in an aqueous electrolyte. This study suggests that the enhanced performance is due to a preferred (220) orientation and a thin silver oxide layer formed by anodization.