Single Atom Bi Decorated Copper Alloy Enables C-C Coupling for Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO2 into C2+ Products

Yucheng Cao; Suya Chen; Shuowen Bo; Wenjun Fan; Jiangnan Li; Chunmei Jia; Zhen Zhou; Qinghua Liu; Lirong Zheng; Fuxiang Zhang

doi:10.1002/anie.202303048

Single Atom Bi Decorated Copper Alloy Enables C-C Coupling for Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO₂ into C₂₊ Products

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2023 Jul 24;62(30):e202303048. doi: 10.1002/anie.202303048. Epub 2023 Jun 16.

Authors

Yucheng Cao^{1

2}, Suya Chen³, Shuowen Bo⁴, Wenjun Fan¹, Jiangnan Li^{1

2}, Chunmei Jia¹, Zhen Zhou³, Qinghua Liu⁴, Lirong Zheng⁵, Fuxiang Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian National Laboratory for Clean Energy, Dalian, 116023, Liaoning, China.
² Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of New Energy Material Chemistry, Renewable Energy Conversion and Storage Center (ReCast), Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China.
⁴ National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230029, Anhui, China.
⁵ Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.

PMID: 37249478
DOI: 10.1002/anie.202303048

Abstract

Single atom alloy (SAA) catalysts have been recently explored for promotion of various heterogeneous catalysis, but it remains unexplored for selective electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂ ) into multi-carbon (C₂₊ ) products involving C-C coupling. Herein we report a single-atomic Bi decorated Cu alloy (denoted as BiCu-SAA) electrocatalyst that could effectively modulate selectivity of CO₂ reduction into C₂₊ products instead of previous C₁ ones. The BiCu-SAA catalyst exhibits remarkably superior selectivity of C₂₊ products with optimal Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 73.4 % compared to the pure copper nanoparticle or Bi nanoparticles-decorated Cu nanocomposites, and its structure and performance can be well maintained at current density of 400 mA cm^-2 under the flow cell system. Based on our in situ characterizations and density functional theory calculations, the BiCu-SAA is found to favor the activation of CO₂ and subsequent C-C coupling during the electrocatalytic reaction, as should be responsible for its extraordinary C₂₊ selectivity.

Keywords: CO2 Reduction; C−C Coupling; Electrocatalyst; Selectivity; Single Atom Catalyst.

Abstract

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