Intermediate enrichment effect of porous Cu catalyst for CO2 electroreduction to C2 fuels. (20th August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liu, Bao; Cai, Chao; Yang, Baopeng; Chen, Kejun; Long, Yan; Wang, Qiyou; Wang, Shuandi; Chen, Guozhu; Li, Hongmei; Hu, Junhua; Fu, Junwei; Liu, Min
• Is Part Of: Electrochimica acta. Volume 388(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-08-20
• Subjects: CO2 electroreduction -- Porous structure -- Spatial confinement effect -- Intermediates -- C2 products; Electrochemistry -- Periodicals; Electrochemistry, Industrial -- Periodicals; 541.37
• DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2021.138552
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-4686

Abstract

Abstract: Electrochemical carbon dioxide (CO2 ) reduction reaction (CO2 RR) to obtain C2/multi-carbon fuels is an appealing technology to reduce carbon emission and store intermittent renewable electricity. The C–C coupling process, as the most critical step for generating C2/multi-carbon fuels, strongly depends on the concentration of *CO intermediates around the active sites. In this work, we prepared porous copper nanospheres (P-Cu) that greatly improved the C–C coupling process by enriching *CO intermediates in the pore structure. The specific pore features of P-Cu were characterized in detail by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and nitrogen adsorption/desorption tests. Obviously, the P-Cu exhibits higher specific surface area and richer pore structure than the control sample compact copper nanosphere (C-Cu). The CO gas sensor and temperature programmed desorption (TPD) tests prove that the P-Cu has better CO adsorption and enrichment capacity than C-Cu due to the rich pore structure. As a result, P-Cu exhibited a high C2 selectivity with a Faradaic efficiency (FEC2 ) of 57.22% at −1.3 V ( vs . RHE), which is about 2.5-fold than the C-Cu (FEC2 of 22.71%). This work provides an effective strategy to improve the activity and selectivity of C2 products in CO2 RR by optimizing the adsorption/enrichment property of intermediates.