Highly Enhanced Chloride Adsorption Mediates Efficient Neutral CO2 Electroreduction over a Dual-Phase Copper Catalyst

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society Vol. 145; no. 15; pp. 8714 - 8725
• Main Authors: Yang, Peng-Peng, Zhang, Xiao-Long, Liu, Pei, Kelly, Daniel J., Niu, Zhuang-Zhuang, Kong, Yan, Shi, Lei, Zheng, Ya-Rong, Fan, Ming-Hui, Wang, Hui-Juan, Gao, Min-Rui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 19.04.2023
• Subjects: adsorption; carbon; carbon dioxide; carbon monoxide; carbonates; catalysts; copper; electrochemistry; electrolysis; electrolytes; energy; potassium chloride
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c02130

Electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction (CO2R) in neutral electrolytes can mitigate the energy and carbon losses caused by carbonate formation but often experiences unsatisfied multicarbon selectivity and reaction rates because of the kinetic limitation to the critical carbon monoxide (CO)–CO coupling step. Here, we describe that a dual-phase copper-based catalyst with abundant Cu­(I) sites at the amorphous–nanocrystalline interfaces, which is electrochemically robust in reducing environments, can enhance chloride-specific adsorption and consequently mediate local *CO coverage for improved CO–CO coupling kinetics. Using this catalyst design strategy, we demonstrate efficient multicarbon production from CO2R in a neutral potassium chloride electrolyte (pH ∼6.6) with a high Faradaic efficiency of 81% and a partial current density of 322 milliamperes per square centimeter. This catalyst is stable after 45 h of operation at current densities relevant to commercial CO2 electrolysis (300 mA per square centimeter).