A comparative study of oxide-derived Cu electrocatalysts through electrochemical vs. thermal reduction

Abstract

Herein, we demonstrated how the processing routes of OD-Cu affected the surface structure and electrochemical reduction of CO₂. We found that the OD-Cu obtained by H₂ annealing is large Cu nanoparticles (>100 nm) while the OD-Cu processed by electrochemical reduction possesses a porous structure of aggregated small Cu + Cu₂O nanoparticles (∼5 nm). These structural differences lead to a distinct performance.