Vertical Cu Nanoneedle Arrays Enhance the Local Electric Field Promoting C-2 Hydrocarbons in the CO2 Electroreduction

Zhou, Yajiao; Liang, Yanqing; Fu, Junwei; Liu, Kang; Chen, Qin; Wang, Xiqing; Li, Hongmei; Zhu, Li; Hu, Junhua; Pan, Hao; Miyauchi, Masahiro; Jiang, Liangxing; Cortes, Emiliano and Liu, Min (2022): Vertical Cu Nanoneedle Arrays Enhance the Local Electric Field Promoting C-2 Hydrocarbons in the CO2 Electroreduction. In: Nano Letters, Vol. 22, No. 5: pp. 1963-1970

Abstract

Electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to multicarbon products is a potential strategy to solve the energy crisis while achieving carbon neutrality. To improve the efficiency of multicarbon products in Cu-based catalysts, optimizing the *CO adsorption and reducing the energy barrier for carbon-carbon (C-C) coupling are essential features. In this work, a strong local electric field is obtained by regulating the arrangement of Cu nanoneedle arrays (CuNNAs). CO2 reduction performance tests indicate that an ordered nanoneedle array reaches a 59% Faraday efficiency for multicarbon products (FEC2) at -1.2 V (vs RHE), compared to a FEC2 of 20% for a disordered nanoneedle array (CuNNs). As such, the very high and local electric fields achieved by an ordered Cu nanoneedle array leads to the accumulation of K+ ions, which benefit both *CO adsorption and C-C coupling. Our results contribute to the design of highly efficient catalysts for multicarbon products.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Physics
• Subjects: 500 Science > 530 Physics
• ISSN: 1530-6984
• Language: English
• DFG: Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - 390776260