Amorphizing of Cu Nanoparticles toward Highly Efficient and Robust Electrocatalyst for CO₂ Reduction to Liquid Fuels with High Faradaic Efficiencies

Abstract

Conversion of carbon dioxide (CO ) into valuable chemicals, especially liquid fuels, through electrochemical reduction driven by sustainable energy sources, is a promising way to get rid of dependence on fossil fuels, wherein developing of highly efficient catalyst is still of paramount importance. In this study, as a proof-of-concept experiment, first a facile while very effective protocol is proposed to synthesize amorphous Cu NPs. Unexpectedly, superior electrochemical performances, including high catalytic activity and selectivity of CO reduction to liquid fuels are achieved, that is, a total Faradaic efficiency of liquid fuels can sum up to the maximum value of 59% at -1.4 V, with formic acid (HCOOH) and ethanol (C H O) account for 37% and 22%, respectively, as well as a desirable long-term stability even up to 12 h. More importantly, this work opens a new avenue for improved electroreduction of CO based on amorphous metal catalysts.

Low-overpotential selective reduction of CO2 to ethanol on electrodeposited Cu Au nanowire arrays

“…In the potential range of −0.8-−1.0 V, the FEs and partial current densities of H 2 and HCOOH increase on all the electrodeposited Cu x Au y NWAs. Remarkably, the Cu x Au y NWAs show outstanding selectivity toward EtOH at relatively low overpotentials (e.g., from −0.5 to −0.7 V), which outperform most of the reported Cu-based CO 2 RR electrocatalysts as shown in Table S4 (e.g., Ag-Cu 2 O PB : FE ∼34% at −1.2 V vs. RHE [35] ; oxide derived Cu x Zn (OD-Cu x Zn): FE ∼29% at −1.05 V vs. RHE [41] ; amorphous Cu (a-Cu) nanoparticles: FE ∼22% at −1.4 V vs. RHE [42] ). Particularly, the CuAu NWA exhibits a volcano-like relationship between the applied potential and the selectivity toward EtOH, which presents the best selectivity to EtOH with an FE of http://engine.scichina.com/doi/10.1016/j.jechem.2019.03.030 ∼45% ( ∼156.87 μmol L −1 , Table S5) and a partial current density of about 1 mA cm −2 at −0.7 V (vs. RHE).…”

Cu(OH)2 supported on Fe(OH)3 as a synergistic and highly efficient system for the dehydrogenation of ammonia-borane

“…The HRTEM images of Cu(OH) 2 after reaction exhibits lattice fringes of 0.21 and 0.18 nm, corresponding to the (1 1 1) and (2 0 0) crystal facets of Cu [45,46], respectively ( Fig. S12d online).…”

Highly Efficient Porous Carbon Electrocatalyst with Controllable N‐Species Content for Selective CO2 Reduction

“…and liquid products (formic acid, and methanol, etc.) . In spite of some exciting achievements, they suffer from high overpotentials, inferior selectivity, high cost, and poor durability .…”