Lewis acid sites incorporation promotes CO2 electroreduction to multicarbon oxygenates over B-CuO nanotubes

Herein, we designed a C2+-producing catalyst by incorporating Lewis acid boron dopant into porous copper oxides nanotubes (B-CuO NTs) via a convenient electrospinning-calcination method. The B-CuO NTs catalyst achieved a 60.5% C2+ Faraday efficiency (FE) including 47% of ethanol, a 4-fold increase over CuO in a flow cell at - 0.6 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). In situ characterizations demonstrate that the strong ability for *CO adsorption on B-CuO NTs facilitates the hydrogenation to the *CHO intermediate and promotes the C-C coupling further to *OCCHO intermediate via the proton-coupled electron transfer reactions. Theoretically calculations demonstrate that B doping induced polarized charge redistribution could suppress the *CHO transfer to C-1 products by reducing the energy barrier for further OC-CHO coupling. This work provides a comprehensive understanding of Lewis acid B doping effect on regulating the C-C coupling pathway and improving the C-2 selectivity.

Automated summary

A C2+-producing catalyst was designed by incorporating a boron dopant into porous copper oxide nanotubes (B-CuO NTs) using an electrospinning-calcination method. The B-CuO NTs catalyst achieved a 60.5% C2+ Faraday efficiency, including 47% ethanol, which is a 4-fold increase compared to CuO in a flow cell. The introduction of boron dopant enhanced the adsorption of *CO on B-CuO NTs, facilitating hydrogenation reactions and promoting C-C coupling to form *OCCHO intermediates.