Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to higher-value hydrocarbons beyond C1 products is desirable for applications in energy storage, transportation and the chemical industry. Cu catalysts have shown the potential to catalyse C–C coupling for C2+ products, but still suffer from low selectivity in water. Here, we firstly use density functional theory to determine the energetics of the initial C–C coupling steps on different Cu facets in CO2 reduction, and suggest that the Cu(100) and stepped (211) facets favour C2+ product formation over Cu(111). To demonstrate this, we report the different tuning methods of facet exposure on Cu-based catalysts. Compared with the (111) predoninant counterparts, the developed nanocubic Cu catalysts with exposed (100) facets present a significant improvement in C2+ to C1 product ratio, with a highest C2+ Faradaic efficiency of over 60% and H2 below 20%.

Nanocubic Cu catalysts for selective C–C coupling in electrochemical CO2 reduction

256th National Meeting (2018)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.