Tailoring the Surface and Interface Structures of Copper‐Based Catalysts for Electrochemical Reduction of CO₂ to Ethylene and Ethanol

Abstract

Electrochemical CO2 reduction to valuable ethylene and ethanol offers a promising strategy to lower CO2 emissions while storing renewable electricity. Cu‐based catalysts have shown the potential for CO2‐to‐ethylene/ethanol conversion, but still suffer from low activity and selectivity. Herein, the effects of surface and interface structures in Cu‐based catalysts for CO2‐to‐ethylene/ethanol production are systematically discussed. Both reactions involve three crucial steps: formation of CO intermediate, CC coupling, and hydrodeoxygenation of C2 intermediates. For ethylene, the key step is CC coupling, which can be enhanced by tailoring the surface structures of catalyst such as step sites on facets, Cu0/Cuδ+ species and nanopores, as well as the optimized molecule–catalyst and electrolyte–catalyst interfaces further promoting the higher ethylene production. While the controllable hydrodeoxygenation of C2 intermediate is important for ethanol, which can be achieved by tuning the stability of oxygenate intermediates through the metallic cluster induced special atomic configuration and bimetallic synergy induced the double active sites on catalyst surface. Additionally, constraining CO coverage by the complex–catalyst interface and stabilizing CO bond by N‐doped carbon/Cu interface can also enhance the ethanol selectivity. The structure–performance relationships will provide the guidance for the design of Cu‐based catalysts for highly efficient reduction of CO2.

Highly Efficient Cu‐Porphyrin‐Based Metal–Organic Framework Nanosheet as Cathode for High‐Rate Li‐CO2 Battery

“…Among them, Cu-based catalysts have been reported to have excellent catalytic activity in the field of CO 2 reduction reactions. [29][30][31] Gong's group constructed oxy-derived copper catalysts with stable nanostructures and Cu/Cu + heterogeneous interfaces to achieve the efficient reduction of CO 2 to C 2 H 4 . [31] In addition, Zhou's group prepared a composite with copper nanoparticles anchored on the nitrogen-doped graphene (denote as Cu-NG) as a cathode which is applied in the Li-CO 2 battery.…”

Unraveling the Potential-Dependent Volcanic Selectivity Changes of an Atomically Dispersed Ni Catalyst During CO2 Reduction

“…The electrochemical CO 2 reduction reaction (ECO 2 RR) offers a promising approach for curbing anthropogenic CO 2 emissions, storing intermittent power from solar, wind, and thermal sources, and producing value-added chemicals or fuels including carbon monoxide, formic acid, ethylene, and ethanol. − Due to the thermodynamic stability of CO 2 , a rational catalyst design is required to reduce the activation energy barrier for the ECO 2 RR . Over the past decade, numerous efficient catalysts have been developed and various chemicals such as carbon monoxide, ethylene, and ethanol can be produced depending on the catalyst types. − The carbon abatement capability has a strong dependence on the chemical product.…”

Understanding the electrocatalytic mechanism of self-template formation of hierarchical Co9S8/Ni3S2heterojunctions for highly selective electroreduction of nitrobenzene

“…13,15 Previous works have confirmed that the highly conductive transition metal sulfides (TMSs) with favorable H 2 O adsorption show promising potential in H 2 O splitting to replace precious metals. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Nevertheless, pure TMSs exhibit weak adsorption on nitrobenzene (PhNO 2 ), which leads to premature desorption of PhNO 2 on the catalyst surface, leading to insufficient and incomplete reduction to PhNH 2 . 15 To this end, interface engineering is an efficient strategy towards electronic structure regulation of interfacial active sites for designing efficient electrocatalysts.…”