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Engineering Silver‐Enriched Copper Core‐Shell Electrocatalysts to Enhance the Production of Ethylene and C 2+ Chemicals from Carbon Dioxide at Low Cell Potentials
Author(s) -
Kuhn Andrew N.,
Zhao Haidong,
Nwabara Uzoma O.,
Lu Xiaofei,
Liu Mingyan,
Pan YungTin,
Zhu Wenjin,
Kenis Paul J. A.,
Yang Hong
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.202101668
Subject(s) - materials science , copper , bimetallic strip , catalysis , ethylene , electrocatalyst , carbon fibers , chemical engineering , inorganic chemistry , carbon dioxide , faraday efficiency , hydrocarbon , metal , electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide , carbon monoxide , electrode , anode , electrochemistry , organic chemistry , chemistry , metallurgy , composite material , composite number , engineering
Copper catalysts are widely studied for the electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to value‐added hydrocarbon products. Controlling the surface composition of copper nanomaterials may provide the electronic and structural properties necessary for carbon‐carbon coupling, thus increasing the Faradaic efficiency (FE) towards ethylene and other multi‐carbon (C 2+ ) products. Synthesis and catalytic study of silver‐coated copper nanoparticles (Cu@Ag NPs) for the reduction of CO 2 are presented. Bimetallic CuAg NPs are typically difficult to produce due to the bulk immiscibility between these two metals. Slow injection of the silver precursor, concentrations of organic capping agents, and gas environment proved critical to control the size and metal distribution of the Cu@Ag NPs. The optimized Cu@Ag electrocatalyst exhibited a very low onset cell potential of −2.25 V for ethylene formation, reaching a FE towards C 2+ products (FE C2+ ) of 43% at −2.50 V, which is 1.0 V lower than a reference Cu catalyst to reach a similar FE C2+ . The high ethylene formation at low potentials is attributed to enhanced CC coupling on the Ag enriched shell of the Cu@Ag electrocatalysts. This study offers a new catalyst design towards increasing the efficiency for the electroreduction of CO 2 to value‐added chemicals.