Issue 2, 2023

A crystal growth kinetics guided Cu aerogel for highly efficient CO2 electrolysis to C2+ alcohols

Abstract

To realize commercial CO2 electrochemical reduction to C2+ alcohols, the selectivity and production rate should be further improved. Establishing controllable surface sites with a favorable local environment is an interesting route to guide the C2+ pathway. Herein, we report a room-temperature one-step synthetic strategy to fabricate a highly stable Cu aerogel as an efficient CO2 reduction electrocatalyst. Controlling crystal growth kinetics using different reductants is an efficient strategy to modulate the nucleation and growth rate of Cu aerogels, enabling the creation of efficient surface sites for the C2+ pathway. Over the Cu aerogel obtained by reducing Cu2+ using a weak reductant (NH3·BH3), the faradaic efficiency of C2+ products could reach 85.8% with the current density of 800 mA cm−2 at the potential of −0.91 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode, and the C2+ alcohol selectivity was 49.7% with a partial current density of 397.6 mA cm−2, while the Cu aerogel prepared using a strong reductant (NaBH4) was favorable to generating CO. Experimental and theoretical studies showed that the selectivity of the reaction depended strongly on the desorption and dimerization of *CO intermediates on the catalysts. The strong reductant induced a defective Cu surface that could facilitate the desorption of the *CO intermediate, subsequently producing CO, whereas the low defect Cu produced using a weak reductant could significantly enhance the selectivity for the C2+ product by improving *CO adsorption and the C–C coupling on the catalyst. This work opens a new way for constructing efficient electrocatalysts for CO2 electroreduction to C2+ alcohols.

Graphical abstract: A crystal growth kinetics guided Cu aerogel for highly efficient CO2 electrolysis to C2+ alcohols

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
06 Sept. 2022
Accepted
05 Dec. 2022
First published
06 Dec. 2022
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, 310-316

A crystal growth kinetics guided Cu aerogel for highly efficient CO2 electrolysis to C2+ alcohols

P. Li, J. Bi, J. Liu, Q. Zhu, C. Chen, X. Sun, J. Zhang, Z. Liu and B. Han, Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 310 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC04961A

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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