Electrochemical CO2 reduction to ethylene by ultrathin CuO nanoplate arrays

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 1877 - 12
• Main Authors: Liu, Wei, Zhai, Pengbo, Li, Aowen, Wei, Bo, Si, Kunpeng, Wei, Yi, Wang, Xingguo, Zhu, Guangda, Chen, Qian, Gu, Xiaokang, Zhang, Ruifeng, Zhou, Wu, Gong, Yongji
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 06.04.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/131; 140/133; 140/146; 147/135; 147/137; 147/143; 147/3; 639/301/299/886; 639/638/161/886; 639/638/77/886; Arrays; Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide emissions; Catalysts; Chemical reduction; Copper; Copper oxides; Efficiency; Electrochemistry; Electrodes; Electrolysis; Emissions; Energy efficiency; Ethylene; Humanities and Social Sciences; Interfaces; multidisciplinary; Potassium chloride; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Selectivity; Stability
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29428-9

Electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to multi-carbon fuels and chemical feedstocks is an appealing approach to mitigate excessive CO 2 emissions. However, the reported catalysts always show either a low Faradaic efficiency of the C 2+ product or poor long-term stability. Herein, we report a facile and scalable anodic corrosion method to synthesize oxygen-rich ultrathin CuO nanoplate arrays, which form Cu/Cu 2 O heterogeneous interfaces through self-evolution during electrocatalysis. The catalyst exhibits a high C 2 H 4 Faradaic efficiency of 84.5%, stable electrolysis for ~55 h in a flow cell using a neutral KCl electrolyte, and a full-cell ethylene energy efficiency of 27.6% at 200 mA cm −2 in a membrane electrode assembly electrolyzer. Mechanism analyses reveal that the stable nanostructures, stable Cu/Cu 2 O interfaces, and enhanced adsorption of the *OCCOH intermediate preserve selective and prolonged C 2 H 4 production. The robust and scalable produced catalyst coupled with mild electrolytic conditions facilitates the practical application of electrochemical CO 2 reduction. Oxide-derived copper has been extensively studied as catalysts for CO 2 electroreduction but its catalytic stability and selectivity still need to be improved. Here, the authors report ultrathin CuO nanoplate arrays for CO 2 reduction with high ethylene selectivity and enhanced long-term stability.