Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer on Cu 2 O/Ti 3 C 2 T x MXene for Propane (C 3 H 8 ) Synthesis from Electrochemical CO 2 Reduction

• Published in: Advanced science 2024-10, Vol.11 (39), p.e2405154
• Main Authors: Kim, Jun Young, Hong, Won Tae, Phu, Thi Kim Cuong, Cho, Seong Chan, Kim, Byeongkyu, Baeck, Unbeom, Oh, Hyung-Suk, Koh, Jai Hyun, Yu, Xu, Choi, Chang Hyuck, Park, Jongwook, Lee, Sang Uck, Chung, Chan-Hwa, Kim, Jung Kyu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2198-3844; 2198-3844
• DOI: 10.1002/advs.202405154

Electrochemical CO reduction reaction (CO RR) to produce value-added multi-carbon chemicals has been an appealing approach to achieving environmentally friendly carbon neutrality in recent years. Despite extensive research focusing on the use of CO to produce high-value chemicals like high-energy-density hydrocarbons, there have been few reports on the production of propane (C H ), which requires carbon chain elongation and protonation. A rationally designed 0D/2D hybrid Cu O anchored-Ti C T MXene catalyst (Cu O/MXene) is demonstrated with efficient CO RR activity in an aqueous electrolyte to produce C H . As a result, a significantly high Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 3.3% is achieved for the synthesis of C H via the CO RR with Cu O/MXene, which is ≈26 times higher than that of Cu/MXene prepared by the same hydrothermal process without NH OH solution. Based on in-situ attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, it is proposed that the significant electrocatalytic conversion originated from the synergistic behavior of the Cu O nanoparticles, which bound the *C intermediates, and the MXene that bound the *CO coupling to the C intermediate. The results disclose that the rationally designed MXene-based hybrid catalyst facilitates multi-carbon coupling as well as protonation, thereby manipulating the CO RR pathway.