Journal
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY
Volume 15, Issue 2, Pages 131-+Publisher
NATURE RESEARCH
DOI: 10.1038/s41565-019-0603-y
Keywords
-
Funding
- Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division [DE-AC02-76SF00515]
- Office of Science of the US Department of Energy [DE-SC0004993, DE-AC02-05CH11231]
- National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents [BX201600011]
- Moore Foundation [4309]
- National Nature Science Foundation of China [21436002, U1663227]
- US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences [DE-AC02-76SF00515]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
To date, effective control over the electrochemical reduction of CO2 to multicarbon products (C >= 2) has been very challenging. Here, we report a design principle for the creation of a selective yet robust catalytic interface for heterogeneous electrocatalysts in the reduction of CO2 to C-2 oxygenates, demonstrated by rational tuning of an assembly of nitrogen-doped nanodiamonds and copper nanoparticles. The catalyst exhibits a Faradaic efficiency of similar to 63% towards C-2 oxygenates at applied potentials of only -0.5 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. Moreover, this catalyst shows an unprecedented persistent catalytic performance up to 120 h, with steady current and only 19% activity decay. Density functional theory calculations show that CO binding is strengthened at the copper/nanodiamond interface, suppressing CO desorption and promoting C-2 production by lowering the apparent barrier for CO dimerization. The inherent compositional and electronic tunability of the catalyst assembly offers an unrivalled degree of control over the catalytic interface, and thereby the reaction energetics and kinetics.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available