(79b) Highly Efficient CO Electroreduction Catalyst Based on Polycrystalline Cu Particles

Electrochemical conversion CO₂ to value-added chemicals and fuels using renewable energy is a promising technique for energy storage and to potentially diminish problems associated with CO₂ emissions. Many catalysts are able to reduce CO₂ to CO with high selectivity and activity. However, to achieve more energy-dense products requires further reduction of CO. Cu is the only currently known material exhibiting appreciable activities towards CO electroreduction^[1,2]. Recent studies show grain boundary terminated Cu surface is able to effectively improve the selectivity and required energy bias for CO electroreduction^[2,3]. Despite significant progress, the optimal activity achieved is only less than 1 mA/cm² which is attributed to the poor transportation of CO caused by its low solubility in the electrolyte (~1 mM). Herein we report our latest progress in CO electroreduction using polycrystalline Cu particle catalysts to achieve high efficiency. Our efforts in providing mechanistic insights including reaction intermediates and pathways will also be discussed.

[1] Hori Y, Takahashi R, Yoshinami Y, et al. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 1997, 101(36): 7075-7081.

[2] Li C W, Ciston J, Kanan M W. Nature, 2014, 508(7497): 504.

[3] Verdaguer-Casadevall A, Li C W, Johansson T P, et al. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2015, 137(31): 9808-9811.