Size Control of Zn, N-doped Carbon Supported Copper Nanoparticles for Effective and Selective CO2 Electroreduction

Metal-support interaction has been used for selectivity control towards electro-chemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR). However, little progress has been made in adjusting the size of metal nanoparticles in supporting material and its effect on CO2RR. Herein, we prepared Cu metal nanoparticle catalysts ranging from a few nanometers to tens in crystallite size encapsulated in Zn, N-doped carbon supports and systematically study the size effect of the supported Cu metal catalysts on the reactivity of CO2RR. The catalyst containing 15.7-nm Cu crystallites has a higher Faradaic efficiency (nearly 80%) at - 0.7 V vs. RHE for CO, higher than 12.2-nm and 8.9-nm Cu catalysts. The result shows the dependence of CO2RR performance on Cu metal size, originating from the interaction between metal nanoparticles and their supporting matrix. This work may shed light on the promise of in situ construction method for supported metal catalyst and the investigation of metal-support interaction towards stable and selective electrochemical CO2 reduction. [GRAPHICS] .

Automated summary

Metal-support interaction is used to control the selectivity of electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR). In this study, Cu metal nanoparticle catalysts of different sizes were prepared and encapsulated in Zn, N-doped carbon supports to investigate the size effect on CO2RR reactivity. The results show that the size of Cu crystallites affects the performance of CO2RR, which is attributed to the interaction between metal nanoparticles and their supporting matrix.