Facile synthesis of porous Cu2O hollow nanospheres for accelerating electroreduction of CO2 towards C2 products

In this paper, porous Cu2O hollow nanospheres (Cu2O-HNSs) were facilely synthesized through a template-free one-pot wet-chemical method. Systematical investigations found that Cu2O-HNSs with many cavities on the shell were formed from porous Cu2O nanospheres through Ostwald ripening. The concentration of NH2OH & BULL;HCl and pH value play critical roles. Compared to Cu powder, Cu2O-HNSs showed enhanced current density and Faraday efficiency of C2 products in electroreduction of CO2 (CER). Our work inspires the synthesis of hollow nanostructures to accelerate the formation of C2 products for CER.

Automated summary

In this study, porous Cu2O hollow nanospheres (Cu2O-HNSs) were synthesized using a template-free one-pot wet-chemical method. It was found that Cu2O-HNSs with multiple cavities on the shell were formed from porous Cu2O nanospheres through Ostwald ripening, with the concentration of NH2OH·HCl and pH value playing critical roles. Compared to Cu powder, Cu2O-HNSs exhibited enhanced current density and Faraday efficiency of C2 products in the electroreduction of CO2 (CER). This work inspires the synthesis of hollow nanostructures for accelerating the formation of C2 products in CER.