Efficient CO2 Electroreduction on Tin Modified Cuprous Oxide Synthesized via a One-Pot Microwave-Assisted Route

Bimetallic copper-tin catalysts are considered cost-effective and suitable for large-scale electrochemical conversion of CO2 to valuable products. In this work, a class of tin (Sn) modified cuprous oxide (Cu2O) is simply synthesized through a one-pot microwave-assisted solvothermal method and thoroughly characterized by various techniques. Sn is uniformly distributed on the Cu2O crystals showing a cube-within-cube structure, and CuSn alloy phase emerges at high Sn contents. The atomic ratio of Cu to Sn is found to be crucially important for the selectivity of the CO2 reduction reaction, and a ratio of 11.6 leads to the optimal selectivity for CO. This electrode shows a high current density of 47.2 mA cm(-2) for CO formation at -1.0 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode and also displays good CO selectivity of 80-90% in a wide potential range. In particular, considerable CO selectivity of 72-81% is achieved at relatively low overpotentials from 240 mV to 340 mV. During the long-term tests, satisfactory stability is observed for the optimal electrode in terms of both electrode activity and CO selectivity. The relatively low price, the fast and scalable synthesis, and the encouraging performance of the proposed material implies its good potential to be implemented in large-scale CO2 electrolyzers.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates that bimetallic copper-tin catalysts with specific Cu to Sn ratios can effectively enhance the CO2 reduction reaction with excellent CO selectivity and high stability. The catalyst is characterized by its simple synthesis process, low cost, superior performance, making it suitable for large-scale CO2 electrolyzers.