Electrochemical Reduction of CO₂on Copper Oxidized by Electrochemical Methods

Abstract

Copper was formed by electrochemical reduction of copper oxides formed due to the electrochemical oxidation via three different electrochemical techniques CA, CV and LSV. The XPS analysis and the SEM images show that the oxides present on the copper surface gets reduced to copper in first few minutes during the reduction of CO 2 . Interestingly, this particular electrochemical treatment of copper surface yields a form of active copper with superior activity compared to un-oxidized polycrystalline copper for electrochemical reduction CO 2 . The major product of the electrochemical CO 2 reduction in the aqueous alkaline phase was formate ions along with gaseous hydrogen. Faradaic efficiency for reduction of carbon dioxide to formate ions was more in case of the copper surface activated by the CV rather than by CA and LSV as the CV created more active copper as compared to the CA and LSV.

Electrochemical Surface Oxidation of Copper Studied by in Situ Grazing Incidence X-ray Diffraction

“…Ex situ phase analysis demonstrated that after electrochemical treatment in alkaline media a crystalline Cu­(OH) 2 is present on the surface . In addition, the alkaline experimental conditions Cu­(OH) 2 is soluble and may be dissolved as Cu­(OH) 4 2– species . This highlights the importance of investigating chemical transformations by in situ techniques in order to extract realistic models.…”

“…29 In addition, the alkaline experimental conditions Cu(OH) 2 is soluble and may be dissolved as Cu(OH) 4 2− species. 39 This highlights the importance of investigating chemical transformations by in situ techniques in order to extract realistic models. Moreover, the weak intensities of the CuO and Cu 2 O reflections can be related to surface layers that can also consist of additional amorphous compounds.…”

Effective Surface Area Tuning of Noble Metal-Free CuBO2/rGO Nanohybrid for Efficient Hydrogen Production with “On–Off” Switching

“…The high-resolution spectrum of Cu 2p shows the presence of Cu 2p 3/2 and Cu 2p 1/2 which are further deconvoluted. For CuBO 2 , deconvolution of Cu 2p 3/2 shows the presence of 932.77 and 935.21 eV which confirm the existence of Cu + and hydroxyl group, respectively, in the sample. − Similarly, decoupling of Cu 2p 1/2 also revealed two peaks at 952.53 and 955.19 eV. These are related to typical Cu + , and Cu 2+ surface oxide accordingly.…”

From Traditional to New Benchmark Catalysts for CO2 Electroreduction

“…Moreover, it is worth mentioning that among the traditionally investigated electrocatalysts, the properties of the metal oxide materials are already well-known in the heterogeneous catalysis field and these compounds have also been widely used in the CO 2 ER reaction, bringing significant improvement in the overall performance, when compared with metal electrodes [104][105][106][107].…”