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Title: A Highly Porous Copper Electrocatalyst for Carbon Dioxide Reduction

Journal Article · · Advanced Materials

Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) is an appealing approach toward tackling climate change associated with atmospheric CO2 emissions. This approach uses CO2 as the carbon feedstock to produce value-added chemicals, resulting in a carbon-neutral (or even carbon-negative) process for chemical production. Many efforts have been devoted to the development of CO2 electrolysis devices that can be operated at industrially relevant rates; however, limited progress has been made, especially for valuable C2+ products. Herein, we synthesized a nanoporous copper CO2 reduction catalyst and integrated it into a microfluidic CO2 flow cell electrolyzer. The CO2 electrolyzer exhibited a current density of 653 mA/cm-2 with a C2+ product selectivity of ~62% at an applied potential of -0.67 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode). Here, the highly porous electrode structure facilitated rapid gas transport across the electrode-electrolyte interface at high current densities. Further investigations on electrolyte effects revealed that the surface pH value was substantially different from the pH of bulk electrolyte, especially for non-buffering near-neutral electrolytes when operating at high currents.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States); Nanjing Univ. (China)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
FE0029868; 1350911
OSTI ID:
1712663
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1479518
Journal Information:
Advanced Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 49; ISSN 0935-9648
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 314 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (16)

Isolated Square‐Planar Copper Center in Boron Imidazolate Nanocages for Photocatalytic Reduction of CO 2 to CO journal July 2019
Hydroxide Is Not a Promoter of C 2+ Product Formation in the Electrochemical Reduction of CO on Copper journal March 2020
Isolated Square‐Planar Copper Center in Boron Imidazolate Nanocages for Photocatalytic Reduction of CO 2 to CO journal July 2019
Hydroxide Is Not a Promoter of C 2+ Product Formation in the Electrochemical Reduction of CO on Copper journal January 2020
Noble‐Metal‐Free Colloidal‐Copper Based Low Overpotential Water Oxidation Electrocatalyst journal July 2019
Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Splitting journal February 2019
Self‐Supported Nanoporous Au 3 Cu Electrode with Enriched Gold on Surface for Efficient Electrochemical Reduction of CO 2 journal January 2020
Two Bulky Conjugated 4′-(4-Hydroxyphenyl)-4,2′:6′,4′′-terpyridine-based Layered Complexes: Synthesis, Structure, and Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution Activity: Two Bulky Conjugated 4′-(4-Hydroxyphenyl)-4,2′:6′,4′′-terpyridine-based Layered Complexes: Synthesis, Structure, and Photocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution journal February 2019
Hydroxide promotes carbon dioxide electroreduction to ethanol on copper via tuning of adsorbed hydrogen journal December 2019
Carbon dioxide electroreduction on single-atom nickel decorated carbon membranes with industry compatible current densities journal January 2020
Two-dimensional copper nanosheets for electrochemical reduction of carbon monoxide to acetate journal April 2019
Carbon monoxide electroreduction as an emerging platform for carbon utilization journal December 2019
Current achievements and the future direction of electrochemical CO 2 reduction: A short review journal June 2019
CO 2 electrolysis to multicarbon products at activities greater than 1 A cm −2 journal February 2020
Cover Picture: Hydroxide Is Not a Promoter of C 2+ Product Formation in the Electrochemical Reduction of CO on Copper (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 11/2020) journal January 2020
Titelbild: Hydroxide Is Not a Promoter of C 2+ Product Formation in the Electrochemical Reduction of CO on Copper (Angew. Chem. 11/2020) journal March 2020

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