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Title: Guiding Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Reduction toward Carbonyls Using Copper Silver Thin Films with Interphase Miscibility

Journal Article · · ACS Energy Letters

Steering the selectivity of Cu-based electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2R) catalysts toward targeted products will serve to improve the technoeconomic outlook of technologies based on this process. Using physical vapor deposition as a tool to overcome thermodynamic miscibility limitations, CuAg thin films with nonequilibrium Cu/Ag alloying were prepared for CO2R performance evaluation. In comparison to pure Cu, the CuAg thin films showed significantly higher activity and selectivity toward liquid carbonyl products, including acetaldehyde and acetate. Suppressed activity and selectivity toward hydrocarbons and the competing hydrogen evolution were also demonstrated on CuAg thin films, with a greater degree of suppression observed at increasing nominal Ag compositions. Compositional-dependent CO2R trends coupled with physical characterization and density functional theory suggest that significant miscibility of Ag into the Cu-rich phase of the catalyst underpinned the observed CO2R trends through tuning of adsorbate and reaction intermediate binding energies on the surface.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; P2ELP2_168600; SC0004993
OSTI ID:
1490965
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1490728
Journal Information:
ACS Energy Letters, Vol. 3, Issue 12; ISSN 2380-8195
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 53 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (4)

Electrochemical Detection and Characterization of Nanoparticles with Printed Devices journal March 2019
Rational Design of Ag‐Based Catalysts for the Electrochemical CO 2 Reduction to CO: A Review journal December 2019
Roles of Oxygen Functional Groups in Carbon Nanotubes‐Supported Ag Catalysts for Electrochemical Conversion of CO 2 to CO journal March 2020
Selective reduction of CO to acetaldehyde with CuAg electrocatalysts journal January 2020

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