The role of in situ generated morphological motifs and Cu(i) species in C2+ product selectivity during CO2 pulsed electroreduction

The efficient electrochemical conversion of CO 2 provides a route to fuels and feedstocks. Copper catalysts are well-known to be selective to multicarbon products, although the role played by the surface architecture and the presence of oxides is not fully understood. Here we report improved efficie...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature energy 2020-04, Vol.5 (4), p.317-325
Main Authors: Arán-Ais, Rosa M., Scholten, Fabian, Kunze, Sebastian, Rizo, Rubén, Roldan Cuenya, Beatriz
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/4077/909/4101/4102
639/638/161/886
639/638/542
Atomic force microscopy
Carbon dioxide
Catalysts
Copper
Copper converters
Defects
Economics and Management
Electrochemistry
Electrolysis
Energy
Energy Policy
Energy Storage
Energy Systems
Ethanol
Fuels
Morphology
Oxidation
Photoelectron spectroscopy
Photoelectrons
Propanol
Renewable and Green Energy
Selectivity
Valence
X ray photoelectron spectroscopy
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The efficient electrochemical conversion of CO 2 provides a route to fuels and feedstocks. Copper catalysts are well-known to be selective to multicarbon products, although the role played by the surface architecture and the presence of oxides is not fully understood. Here we report improved efficiency towards ethanol by tuning the morphology and oxidation state of the copper catalysts through pulsed CO 2 electrolysis. We establish a correlation between the enhanced production of C 2+ products (76% ethylene, ethanol and n -propanol at −1.0 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode) and the presence of (100) terraces, Cu 2 O and defects on Cu(100). We monitored the evolution of the catalyst morphology by analysis of cyclic voltammetry curves and ex situ atomic force microscopy data, whereas the chemical state of the surface was examined via quasi in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We show that the continuous regeneration of defects and Cu( i ) species synergistically favours C–C coupling pathways. Carbon dioxide can be reduced electrocatalytically to fuels using copper catalysts, but the key features that determine the selectivity of these materials to specific products remains uncertain. Here Arán–Ais et al. use in situ methods to explore the influence of morphology and oxidation state on the performance of copper catalysts.
ISSN:2058-7546
2058-7546
DOI:10.1038/s41560-020-0594-9