Electron-Rich In₂O₃-Cu Interfaces Drive Selective and Stable CO₂ Electroreduction

Area of Science:

• Electrochemistry
• Materials Science
• Catalysis

Background:

• Metal-oxide interfaces are crucial for steering CO2 electroreduction (CO2RR) on copper catalysts.
• Conventional supported catalysts face interfacial degradation issues under operating potentials.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design a stable and highly selective catalyst for CO2RR.
• To investigate the role of inverse oxide-metal architecture in mitigating interfacial degradation and enhancing catalytic performance.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of an inverse In2O3/Cu architecture with dispersed In2O3 domains on porous Cu.
• Electrochemical performance testing for CO2RR.
• In situ infrared spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations.

Main Results:

• The optimized 5In2O3/Cu catalyst demonstrated a CO Faradaic efficiency of ~95%.
• Stable operation exceeding 90 hours was achieved.
• Interface stabilization of water structure and dual active sites were identified, suppressing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and lowering COOH formation barrier to 0.51 eV.

Conclusions:

• Inverse catalyst design is an effective strategy for achieving high selectivity and long-term stability in CO2RR.
• Strong oxide-metal interactions in the In2O3/Cu system stabilize interfaces and create an electron-rich Cu microenvironment.