Production of methanol from electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide is very attractive. However, achieving high Faradaic efficiency with high current density using facile prepared catalysts remains to be a challenge. Herein we report that copper selenide nanocatalysts have outstanding performance for electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to methanol, and the current density can be as high as 41.5 mA cm−2 with a Faradaic efficiency of 77.6% at a low overpotential of 285 mV. The copper and selenium in the catalysts cooperate very well for the formation of methanol. The current density is higher than those reported up to date with very high Faradaic efficiency for producing methanol. As far as we know, this is the first work for electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide using copper selenide as the catalyst.

Electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to chemicals and fuels is an interesting and attractive way to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and energy shortages. In this work, we report the use of atomic In catalysts for CO 2 electroreduction to CO. The atomic In catalysts were anchored on N-doped carbon (In A /NC) through pyrolysis of In-based metal−organic frameworks (MOFs) and dicyandiamide. It was discovered that In A /NC had outstanding performance for selective CO production in the mixed electrolyte of ionic liquid/ MeCN. It is different from those common In-based materials, in which formate/ formic acid is formed as the main product. The faradaic efficiency (FE) of CO and total current density were 97.2% and 39.4 mA cm -2 , respectively, with a turnover frequency (TOF) of ∼40 000 h −1 . It is one of the highest TOF for CO production to date for all of the catalysts reported. In addition, the catalyst had remarkable stability. Detailed study indicated that In A /NC had higher double-layer capacitance, larger CO 2 adsorption capacity, and lower interfacial charge transfer resistance, leading to high activity for CO 2 reduction. Control experiments and theoretical calculations showed that the In−N site of In A /NC is not only beneficial for dissociation of COOH* to form CO but also hinders formate formation, leading to high selectivity toward CO instead of formate.

Electroreduction of CO2 to liquid fuels such as ethanol and n‐propanol, powered by renewable electricity, offers a promising strategy for controlling the global carbon balance and addressing the need for the storage of intermittent renewable energy. In this work, we discovered that the composite composed of nitrogen‐doped graphene quantum dots (NGQ) on CuO‐derived Cu nanorods (NGQ/Cu‐nr) was an outstanding electrocatalyst for the reduction of CO2 to ethanol and n‐propanol. The Faradaic efficiency (FE) of C2+ alcohols could reach 52.4 % with a total current density of 282.1 mA cm−2. This is the highest FE for C2+ alcohols with a commercial current density to date. Control experiments and DFT studies show that the NGQ/Cu‐nr could provide dual catalytic active sites and could stabilize the CH2CHO intermediate to enhance the FE of alcohols significantly through further carbon protonation. The NGQ and Cu‐nr had excellent synergistic effects for accelerating the reduction of CO2 to alcohols.

Electrochemical reduction of CO into value-added product is an interesting area. MoP nanoparticles supported on porous carbon were synthesized using metal-organic frameworks as the carbon precursor, and initial work on CO electroreduction using the MoP-based catalyst were carried out. It was discovered that MoP nanoparticles supported on In-doped porous carbon had outstanding performance for CO reduction to formic acid. The Faradaic efficiency and current density could reach 96.5 % and 43.8 mA cm , respectively, when using ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate as the supporting electrolyte. The current density is higher than those reported up to date with very high Faradaic efficiency. The MoP nanoparticles and the doped In O cooperated very well in catalyzing the CO electroreduction.

Electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 into multicarbon (C2+) products powered by renewable electricity offers one promising way for CO2 utilization and promotes the storage of renewable energy under the ambient environment....