Identifying an Interfacial Stabilizer for Regeneration-Free 300 h Electrochemical CO2 Reduction to C2 Products

Xinyu Wang; Yawen Jiang; Keke Mao; Wanbing Gong; Delong Duan; Jun Ma; Yuan Zhong; Jiawei Li; Hengjie Liu; Ran Long; Yujie Xiong

doi:10.1021/jacs.2c11109

Identifying an Interfacial Stabilizer for Regeneration-Free 300 h Electrochemical CO₂ Reduction to C₂ Products

J Am Chem Soc. 2022 Dec 14;144(49):22759-22766. doi: 10.1021/jacs.2c11109. Epub 2022 Dec 1.

Authors

Xinyu Wang^{1

2}, Yawen Jiang¹, Keke Mao³, Wanbing Gong¹, Delong Duan¹, Jun Ma¹, Yuan Zhong¹, Jiawei Li¹, Hengjie Liu¹, Ran Long¹, Yujie Xiong^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
² Institute of Energy, Hefei Comprehensive National Science Center, 350 Shushanhu Rd., Hefei, Anhui 230031, China.
³ School of Energy and Environment Science, Anhui University of Technology, Maanshan, Anhui 243032, China.

PMID: 36453117
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c11109

Abstract

The electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR) to produce high value-added hydrocarbons and oxygenates presents a sustainable and compelling approach toward a carbon-neutral society. However, uncontrollable migration of active sites during the electrochemical CO₂RR limits its catalytic ability to simultaneously achieve high C₂ selectivity and ultradurability. Here, we demonstrate that the generated interfacial CuAlO₂ species can efficiently stabilize the highly active sites over the Cu-CuAlO₂-Al₂O₃ catalyst under harsh electrochemical conditions without active sites regeneration for a long-term test. We show that this unique Cu-CuAlO₂-Al₂O₃ catalyst exhibits ultradurable electrochemical CO₂RR performance with an 85% C₂ Faradaic efficiency for a 300 h test. Such a simple interfacial engineering design approach unveiled in this work would be adaptable to develop various ultradurable catalysts for industrial-scale electrochemical CO₂RR.