Cu2O Nanoparticles Wrapped by N-Doped Carbon Nanotubes for Efficient Electroreduction of CO2 to C2 Products

Jilin Liu; Kai Yu; Qianlong Zhu; Zhiyuan Qiao; Hong Zhang; Jie Jiang

doi:10.1021/acsami.3c04800

Cu₂O Nanoparticles Wrapped by N-Doped Carbon Nanotubes for Efficient Electroreduction of CO₂ to C₂ Products

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2023 Aug 2;15(30):36135-36142. doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c04800. Epub 2023 Jul 21.

Authors

Jilin Liu^{1

2

3}, Kai Yu^{2

3}, Qianlong Zhu^{2

3}, Zhiyuan Qiao^{2

3}, Hong Zhang^{2

3}, Jie Jiang^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150001, China.
² School of Environment, School of Marine Science and Technology (Weihai), Harbin Institute of Technology, Weihai, Shandong 150090, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150090, China.

PMID: 37477561
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c04800

Abstract

Electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to C₂ products (ethylene and ethanol) using efficient catalysts is a feasible approach to alleviate the climate crisis. Cuprous oxide nanoparticles (Cu₂O NPs) are a promising catalyst for C₂ production but suffer from inherent selectivity and durability. To address this challenge, a Cu₂O NPs-nitrogen-doped carbon nanotube (Cu₂O NPs-NCNT) composite was prepared with carbon nanotubes (CNTs), Cu₂O NPs, and phthalocyanine (Pc). The results indicate that Cu₂O NPs-NCNT has excellent Faradic efficiency of C₂ products (77.61%) at -1.1 V vs RHE, which is 103.43% higher than that of Cu₂O NPs. In the potentiostatic electrolysis combined with Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements, Cu₂O NPs-NCNT exhibited structural and catalytic current stability over 10 h. Finally, density functional theory calculations combined with XPS demonstrated that the NCNT in Cu₂O NPs-NCNT can selectively absorb CO₂ through specific N-CO₂ interactions. Our work provides a unique strategy to promote the selectivity of Cu₂O NPs for C₂ production by introducing N-doped linear carbon materials to fabricate composite.

Keywords: C2 products; CO2 electroreduction; Cu2O nanoparticles; carbon nanotubes; phthalocyanine.