Strong interactions of metal-support for efficient reduction of carbon dioxide into ethylene

Electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) into high value-added fuels and chemicals with excellent efficiency is an attractive but challenging route to alleviate energy crisis and environmental pollution. Here, the hollow Cu/CeO2 nanotubes synthesized via the self-templated method display a high faradaic efficiency (FE) of 78.3% for the electrochemical reduction of CO2 into ethylene (C2H4) in flow cell at a low applied potential of -0.7 V vs. RHE. The high reduction efficiency of Cu/CeO2 nanotubes catalyst can be attributed to the synergistic effects from the formation of inseparable interface structure between Cu and CeO2, which enhance the effective adsorption of intermediates. More importantly, the Cu/CeO2 nanotubes catalyst also exhibits excellent performance (FE(C2H4) of 65.5%) in the solar-driven overall CO2 splitting reaction with a conversion efficiency of 4.2%. The results demonstrate the rational regulation of metal-support interactions for improving electrocatalytic CO2 reduction into multicarbon (C2+) products.

Automated summary

The Cu/CeO2 nanotubes catalyst shows high efficiency in electrochemical reduction of CO2 and solar-driven CO2 splitting reaction, attributed to the synergistic effects from the formation of inseparable interface structure between Cu and CeO2.