Copper-based metal–organic
frameworks (MOFs) and their derivatives
have been used for CO2 electroreduction; however, they
still have obvious drawbacks like poor selectivity and durability.
Here, Cu_btc (btc = benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate)-derived Cu2O/Cu anchored in a nitrogen-doped porous carbon framework (Cu2O/Cu@NC) was prepared for CO2 electroreduction.
Cu2O/Cu@NC-800 (carbonizing Cu_btc at 800 °C) produced
formate and ethanol concurrently with an overpotential as low as ∼380
mV. However, it exhibited higher selectivity toward formate against
ethanol, with the maximum formate faradaic efficiencies of 70.5% at
−0.68 V vs a reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), which was
1.79 and 1.84 times higher than that of Cu2O/Cu@NC-700
and Cu2O/Cu@NC-900. This superior performance remained
stable for over 30 h. The enhancement in activity and selectivity
was attributed to (i) a higher Cu content and well-dispersed Cu2O/Cu nanoparticles inside the carbon frameworks, which provided
abundant active reaction sites, and (ii) a higher content of N doped
into the Cu2O/Cu lattice to possibly facilitate *OCHO generation.
These findings provided a convenient strategy to enhance the activity
and selectivity of catalysts for efficient CO2 electroreduction.
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