Boosting CO2 electroreduction to C2+ products on fluorine-doped copper

Abstract

Electrochemical reduction of CO₂ by renewable electricity offers a promising way to settle excessive greenhouse gases and achieve carbon neutrality under a mild environment. Cu-based catalysts have a unique catalytic activity towards multicarbon (C₂₊) products in the CO₂ electroreduction reaction and are widely studied to promote the corresponding selectivity and activity. Here we report a F-doped Cu (F–Cu) catalyst to improve C₂₊ products in CO₂ electroreduction. A high C₂₊ product (mainly ethylene and ethanol) faradaic efficiency of 70.4% was achieved on the F–Cu catalyst with a high current density (above 400 mA cm⁻²) in the flow-cell system. The in situ surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy results and electrochemical performance analysis demonstrated that CO₂ could be reduced into CO at low potentials and the adsorption of CO could be strengthened on F–Cu, which is beneficial to the subsequent C–C coupling step and formation of the C₂₊ products.