Synergetic effects of gold -doped copper nanowires with low Au content for enhanced electrocatalytic CO, reduction to multicarbon products

As efficient catalysts of electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) towards multicarbon (C2+) products, Cu -based catalysts have faced the challenges of increasing the reactive activity and selectivity. Herein, we decorated the surface of Cu nanowires (Cu NWs) with a small amount of Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) by the homo-nucleation method. When the Au to Cu mass ratio is as little as 0.7 to 99.3, the gold -doped copper nanowires (Cu -Au NWs) could effectively improve the selectivity and activity of CO2RR to C-2+,C- resultants, with the Faradaic efficiency (FE) from 39.7% (Cu NWs) to 65.3%, and the partial current density from 7.0 (Cu NWs) to 12.1 mA/cm(2) under -1.25 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). The enhanced electrocatalytic performance could be attributed to the following three synergetic factors. The addition of Au nanoparticles caused a rougher surface of the catalyst, which allowed for more active sites exposed. Besides, Au sites generated *CO intermediates spilling over into Cu sites with the calculated efficiency of 87.2%, which are necessary for multicarbon production. Meanwhile, the interphase electron transferred from Cu to Au induced the electron -deficient Cu, which favored the adsorption of *CO to further generate multicarbon productions. Our results uncovered the morphology, tandem, and electronic effect between Cu NWs and Au NPs facilitated the activity and selectivity of CO2RR to multicarbons.

Automated summary

By decorating Cu nanowires with a small amount of Au nanoparticles, the selectivity and activity of Cu-based catalysts towards multicarbon products in electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction were effectively improved. The addition of Au nanoparticles resulted in a rougher surface of the catalyst and facilitated the generation of *CO intermediates, which are crucial for multicarbon production. The enhanced electrocatalytic performance was attributed to the morphology, tandem, and electronic effect between Cu nanowires and Au nanoparticles.