Enhancing Cu-ligand interaction for efficient CO₂ reduction towards multi-carbon products

Area of Science:

• Electrochemistry
• Materials Science
• Catalysis

Background:

• Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction (CO2R) is a key technology for sustainable CO2 utilization.
• Developing efficient catalysts is crucial for improving CO2R selectivity and activity.
• Copper-based catalysts are promising for CO2R but often require optimization for enhanced performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel catalyst precursor, Cu-DAT (copper with 3,5-diamino-1,2,4-triazole), for efficient CO2R.
• To investigate the catalytic activity and selectivity of Cu-DAT for producing valuable multicarbon products.
• To elucidate the structure-activity relationship and understand the mechanism behind the enhanced performance.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of Cu-DAT catalyst precursor.
• Electrochemical characterization of CO2R performance, including selectivity and current density measurements.
• Analysis of the catalyst's active phase and mechanistic studies on CO adsorption and C-C coupling.

Main Results:

• Cu-DAT demonstrated over 80% selectivity towards multicarbon products at a high current density of 400 mA cm⁻².
• The catalyst exhibited an intrinsic activity over 19 times higher than that of conventional copper nanoparticles.
• The active phase was identified as metallic copper coordinated with the DAT ligand.

Conclusions:

• The Cu-DAT catalyst precursor offers a highly efficient strategy for electrochemical CO2 reduction.
• The DAT ligand plays a crucial role in accelerating CO adsorption and C-C coupling, leading to enhanced performance.
• This work provides insights into designing advanced catalysts for sustainable CO2 conversion into valuable chemicals.