Hard-Sphere Random Close-Packed Au47 Cd2 (TBBT)31 Nanoclusters with a Faradaic Efficiency of Up to 96 % for Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction to CO.

Metal nanoclusters have recently attracted considerable attention, not only because of their special size range but also because of their well-defined compositions and structures. However, subtly tailoring the compositions and structures of metal nanoclusters for potential applications remains challenging. Now, a two-phase anti-galvanic reduction (AGR) method is presented for precisely tailoring Au44 (TBBT)28 to produce Au47 Cd2 (TBBT)31 nanoclusters with a hard-sphere random close-packed structure, exhibiting Faradaic efficiencies of up to 96 % at -0.57 V for the electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to CO.