Modified Cu-Sn Catalysts Enhance CO2RR Towards Syngas Generation.

Area of Science:

• Electrochemistry
• Materials Science
• Catalysis

Background:

• Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2RR) is a key technology for sustainable CO2 utilization, producing valuable chemicals.
• Developing efficient and selective catalysts is crucial for advancing CO2RR technology.
• Existing methods often require high overpotentials and lack product tunability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop tuneable copper-tin (Cu-Sn) bimetallic catalysts for CO2RR using electrodeposition.
• To optimize catalysts for operation in a scalable zero-gap flow cell configuration.
• To investigate the effect of electrodeposition parameters on catalyst selectivity and performance.

Main Methods:

• Electrodeposition of Cu-Sn bimetallic catalysts with controlled parameters (pH, surfactant DTAB, metal precursors).
• Performance evaluation in a zero-gap flow cell using CO2-saturated KHCO3 solution.
• Characterization using SEM/EDX and electrochemical analysis.

Main Results:

• Engineered Cu-Sn catalysts exhibited distinct selectivity towards CO, C2H4, and CH4.
• Cu-Sn(B) catalyst achieved 50% Faradaic efficiency (FE) for CO at -2.2 V, outperforming silver-based systems.
• Cu-Sn(A) favoured C2H4 (35% FE) and Cu-Sn(C) favoured CH4 (26% FE), demonstrating product tunability.
• Catalysts operated at lower voltages than literature benchmarks with moderate CO2 utilization (32-49%).

Conclusions:

• Electrodeposited Cu-Sn catalysts offer a promising route for energy-efficient CO2RR.
• Synergistic Cu-Sn interactions and DTAB-induced morphology control enhance catalyst performance.
• This work bridges fundamental research and industrial application for syngas and hydrocarbon production from CO2.