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Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Unexpected high selectivity for acetate formation from CO2 reduction with copper based 2D hybrid catalysts at
Rongming Cai1,2, Mingzi Sun3, Jiazheng Ren1
1Guangdong Provincial Key Lab of Nano-Micro Material Research, School of Chemical Biology and Biotechnology, Shenzhen Graduate School, Peking University Shenzhen 518055 China xialong@pku.edu.cn chsyang@pku.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Copper-based catalysts are efficient for CO2 reduction affording commodity chemicals. However, Cu(i) active species are easily reduced to Cu(0) during the CO2RR, leading to a rapid decay of catalytic performance. Herein, we report a hybrid-catalyst that firmly anchors 2D-Cu metallic dots on F-doped Cu O nanoplates (Cu OF), synthesized by electrochemical-transformation under the same conditions as the targeted CO2RR. The as-prepared Cu/Cu OF hybrid showed unusual catalytic activity towards the CO2RR for CH3COO- generation, with a high FE of 27% at extremely low potentials. The combined experimental and theoretical results show that nanoscale hybridization engenders an effective s,p-d coupling in Cu/Cu OF, raising the d-band center of Cu and thus enhancing electroactivity and selectivity for the acetate formation. This work highlights the use of electronic interactions to bias a hybrid catalyst towards a particular pathway, which is critical for tuning the activity and selectivity of copper-based catalysts for the CO2RR.
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