Selective carbon dioxide electroreduction to ethylene and ethanol by core-shell copper/cuprous oxide

Longmei Shang; Ximeng Lv; Hao Shen; Zhengzhong Shao; Gengfeng Zheng

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2019.05.073

Selective carbon dioxide electroreduction to ethylene and ethanol by core-shell copper/cuprous oxide

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2019 Sep 15:552:426-431. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.05.073. Epub 2019 May 23.

Authors

Longmei Shang¹, Ximeng Lv¹, Hao Shen¹, Zhengzhong Shao², Gengfeng Zheng³

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Department of Chemistry and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China.
² Department of Macromolecules Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China.
³ Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Department of Chemistry and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China. Electronic address: gfzheng@fudan.edu.cn.

PMID: 31151020
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2019.05.073

Abstract

Developing an effective catalyst to reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) to value-added C₂₊ products is a key challenge for CO₂ utilization. Here we report a core-shell copper with native oxide (Cu@Cu₂O) catalyst featuring a thin native oxide layer on the surface grown under ambient conditions. The Cu(I) oxide species on Cu@Cu₂O surface remained relatively stable against reduction under CO₂ electroreduction condition, and the synergism between surface Cu⁺ and Cu⁰ in Cu@Cu₂O contributed to boosting its efficiency and selectivity toward C₂ products. This Cu@Cu₂O catalyst achieved an excellent selectivity (∼50% at -1.0 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode) for C₂ (ethylene and ethanol) production.

Keywords: CO(2) reduction; Copper; Electrocatalyst; Faradaic efficiency; Native oxide.