Cu Nanoparticles Decorating N‑Doped Erythrocyte-Shaped Carbon Nanostructures for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction

• Published in: Energy & fuels Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 958 - 964
• Main Authors: Xie, Wenke, Yang, Tiantian, Tian, Na, Liu, Xuan-He, Chen, Jie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 20.01.2022
• Subjects: Environmental and Carbon Dioxide Issues
• ISSN: 0887-0624; 1520-5029
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.1c03823

Cu-based nanostructures are considered to be promising in catalyzing electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction (ECO2R). Nevertheless, it is still a challenge to overcome high overpotential and competitive hydrogen evolution reaction. Herein, we aimed to engineer the activity and selectivity of ECO2R by size regulation of Cu nanoparticles in an N-doped carbon matrix. Cu nanoparticles with a size of 64 nm decorating N-doped erythrocyte-shaped carbon nanostructures (CuNPs@N–C-2) were constructed. CuNPs@N–C-2-modified electrodes displayed large electrochemically active surface area, fast charge transfer, and fast ECO2R rates and therefore exhibited excellent electrocatalytic ECO2R performance. CuNPs@N–C-2 achieved a high FECO (99%) at −0.7 V and showed long-term electrochemical stability. The studies demonstrated that both the size of Cu nanoparticles and abundant Cu-Nx sites in the N-doped carbon matrix contributed to the outstanding ECO2R performance. This work offered a potential way to explore efficient Cu-based nanostructures for ECO2R to CO.