Electrochemical CO₂ reduction to C₂₊ products over Cu/Zn intermetallic catalysts synthesized by electrodeposition

Abstract

Electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction (ECR) offers an attractive approach to realizing carbon neutrality and producing valuable chemicals and fuels using CO₂ as the feedstock. However, the lack of cost-effective electrocatalysts with better performances has seriously hindered its application. Herein, a one-step co-electrodeposition method was used to introduce Zn, a metal with weak *CO binding energy, into Cu to form Cu/Zn intermetallic catalysts (Cu/Zn IMCs). It was shown that, using an H-cell, the high Faradaic efficiency of C₂₊ hydrocarbons/alcohols ({\mathrm{F}\mathrm{E}}_{{\mathrm{C}}_{2+}}) could be achieved in ECR by adjusting the surface metal components and the applied potential. In suitable conditions, FE_C2+ and current density could be as high as 75% and 40 mA/cm², respectively. Compared with the Cu catalyst, the Cu/Zn IMCs have a lower interfacial charge transfer resistance and a larger electrochemically active surface area (ECSA), which accelerate the reaction. Moreover, the *CO formed on Zn sites can move to Cu sites due to its weak binding with *CO, and thus enhance the C–C coupling on the Cu surface to form C₂₊ products.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

carbon dioxide electroreduction / electrochemistry / co-electrodeposition / intermetallic catalysts / value-added chemicals

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2020YFA0710201), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2023M731096), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 22022307, 22121002, and 21890761), and the Research Funds of Happiness Flower ECNU (Grant No. 2020ST2203).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-023-0898-0 and is accessible for authorized users.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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