Creating interfaces of Cu0/Cu+ in oxide-derived copper catalysts for electrochemical CO2 reduction to multi-carbon products

Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) is an effective approach to capture CO2 and convert it into value-added chemicals and fuels, thereby reducing excess CO2 emissions. Recent reports have shown that copper-based catalysts exhibit excellent performance in converting CO2 into multi-carbon compounds and hydrocarbons. However, the selectivity to the coupling products is poor. Therefore, tuning CO2-reduction selectivity toward C2+ products over Cu-based catalyst is one of the most important issues in CO2RR. Herein, we prepare a nanosheet catalyst with interfaces of Cu0/Cu+. The catalyst achieves Faraday efficiency (FE) of C2+ over 50% in a wide potential window between - 1.2 V to - 1.5 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (vs. RHE). Moreover, the catalyst exhibits maximum FE of 44.5% and 58.9% towards C2H4 and C2+, with a partial current density of 10.5 mA cm-2 at - 1.4 V. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that the interface of Cu0/ Cu+ facilitates C-C coupling to form C2+ products, while inhibits CO2 conversion to C1 products.

Automated summary

Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) is an effective method to capture and convert CO2 into valuable chemicals and fuels, reducing CO2 emissions. Copper-based catalysts have shown excellent performance in converting CO2 into multi-carbon compounds and hydrocarbons. However, their selectivity towards coupling products is poor.