Selective Electroreduction of CO to Acetone by Single Copper Atoms Anchored on N-doped Porous Carbon

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2020 May 17

PMID 32415075

Citations 38

Authors

Kun Zhao

Xiaowa Nie

Haozhi Wang

Shuo Chen

Xie Quan

Hongtao Yu

Wonyong Choi

Guanghui Zhang

Bupmo Kim

Jingguang G Chen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Efficient electroreduction of CO to multi-carbon products is a challenging reaction because of the high energy barriers for CO activation and C-C coupling, which can be tuned by designing the metal centers and coordination environments of catalysts. Here, we design single atom copper encapsulated on N-doped porous carbon (Cu-SA/NPC) catalysts for reducing CO to multi-carbon products. Acetone is identified as the major product with a Faradaic efficiency of 36.7% and a production rate of 336.1 μg h. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the coordination of Cu with four pyrrole-N atoms is the main active site and reduces the reaction free energies required for CO activation and C-C coupling. The energetically favorable pathways for CHCOCH production from CO reduction are proposed and the origin of selective acetone formation on Cu-SA/NPC is clarified. This work provides insight into the rational design of efficient electrocatalysts for reducing CO to multi-carbon products.

Citing Articles

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