A strategy to eliminate carbon deposition on a copper electrode in order to enhance its stability in CO2RR catalysis by introducing crystal defects

Cu is the only electrocatalyst that converts CO2 into appreciable quantities of hydrocarbons. However, it usually suffers from poor catalytic stability. In this work we propose a strategy of introducing crystal defects to change the reaction pathway and avoid accumulation of carbon on the Cu electrode surface, thus preventing its deactivation. Our experimental results show that carbon accumulation vanished and catalytic stability improved after crystal defects had been introduced into nano Cu electrodes. The correlation between the two rules: (1) crystal defects facilitate C2H4 formation while suppress CH4 generation; (2) crystal defects improve catalytic stability, reveals that the C2H4 formation pathway bypasses the carbon deposition associated with CH4 formation and results in stable catalytic performance. In particular, the Cu catalyst prepared according to this principle performed with good stability for 6 h almost without any change in Faradaic efficiency. This work may provide a new approach to stable CO2RR catalysis by managing the reaction pathway.