Issue 41, 2023

Ultra-fast synthesis of three-dimensional porous Cu/Zn heterostructures for enhanced carbon dioxide electroreduction

Abstract

The construction of metal hetero-interfaces has great potential in the application of electro-catalytic carbon dioxide reduction (ECR). Herein, we report a fast, efficient, and simple electrodeposition strategy for synthesizing three-dimensional (3D) porous Cu/Zn heterostructures using the hydrogen bubble template method. When the deposition was carried out at −1.0 A for 30 s, the obtained 3D porous Cu/Zn heterostructures on carbon paper (CP) demonstrated a nearly 100% CO faradaic efficiency (FE) with a high partial current density of 91.8 mA cm−2 at −2.1 V vs. Ag/Ag+ in the mixed electrolyte of ionic liquids/acetonitrile in an H-type cell. In particular, the partial current density of CO could reach 165.5 mA cm−2 and the FE of CO could remain as high as 94.3% at −2.5 V vs. Ag/Ag+. The current density is much higher than most reported to date in an H-type cell (Table S1). Experimental and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the outstanding electrocatalytic performance of the electrode can be ascribed to the formation of 3D porous Cu/Zn heterostructures, in which the porous and self-supported architecture facilitates diffusion and the Cu/Zn heterostructures can reduce the energy barrier for ECR to CO.

Graphical abstract: Ultra-fast synthesis of three-dimensional porous Cu/Zn heterostructures for enhanced carbon dioxide electroreduction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
29 jun 2023
Accepted
02 okt 2023
First published
04 okt 2023
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2023,14, 11474-11480

Ultra-fast synthesis of three-dimensional porous Cu/Zn heterostructures for enhanced carbon dioxide electroreduction

S. Jia, Q. Zhu, S. Han, J. Zhai, M. Dong, W. Xia, X. Xing, H. Wu, M. He and B. Han, Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 11474 DOI: 10.1039/D3SC03317A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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