Copper-on-nitride Enhances the Stable Electrosynthesis of Multi-carbon Products from CO

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2018 Sep 22

PMID 30237471

Citations 32

Authors

Zhi-Qin Liang

Tao-Tao Zhuang

Ali Seifitokaldani

Jun Li

Chun-Wei Huang

Chih-Shan Tan

Yi Li

Phil De Luna

Cao Thang Dinh

Yongfeng Hu

Qunfeng Xiao

Pei-Lun Hsieh

Yuhang Wang

Fengwang Li

Rafael Quintero-Bermudez

Yansong Zhou

Peining Chen

Yuanjie Pang

Shen-Chuan Lo

Lih-Juann Chen

Hairen Tan

Zheng Xu

Suling Zhao

David Sinton

Edward H Sargent

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Copper-based materials are promising electrocatalysts for CO reduction. Prior studies show that the mixture of copper (I) and copper (0) at the catalyst surface enhances multi-carbon products from CO reduction; however, the stable presence of copper (I) remains the subject of debate. Here we report a copper on copper (I) composite that stabilizes copper (I) during CO reduction through the use of copper nitride as an underlying copper (I) species. We synthesize a copper-on-nitride catalyst that exhibits a Faradaic efficiency of 64 ± 2% for C products. We achieve a 40-fold enhancement in the ratio of C to the competing CH compared to the case of pure copper. We further show that the copper-on-nitride catalyst performs stable CO reduction over 30 h. Mechanistic studies suggest that the use of copper nitride contributes to reducing the CO dimerization energy barrier-a rate-limiting step in CO reduction to multi-carbon products.

Citing Articles

Polymeric ionic liquid promotes acidic electrocatalytic CO conversion to multicarbon products with ampere level current on Cu.

Tan Z, Zhang J, Yang Y, Zhong J, Zhao Y, Teng Y Nat Commun. 2025; 16(1):1843.

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Stabilized Cu-OH species on in situ reconstructed Cu nanoparticles for CO-to-CH conversion in neutral media.

Wang L, Chen Z, Xiao Y, Huang L, Wang X, Fruehwald H Nat Commun. 2024; 15(1):7477.

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Turning copper into an efficient and stable CO evolution catalyst beyond noble metals.

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Advances and challenges in the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide.

Han J, Xu X, Bai X, Husile A, Zhang S, Qi L Chem Sci. 2024; 15(21):7870-7907.

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Revealing the Lattice Carbonate Mediated Mechanism in Cu(OH)CO for Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO to CH.

Gao Y, Xiao D, Wang Z, Zheng Z, Wang P, Cheng H Adv Sci (Weinh). 2024; 11(14):e2308949.

PMID: 38311576 PMC: 11005744. DOI: 10.1002/advs.202308949.

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