Electrochemical,
Scanning Electrochemical Microscopic,
and InSitu Electrochemical Fourier
Transform Infrared Studies of CO2 Reduction at Porous Copper
Surfaces
posted on 2023-04-05, 12:05authored byAllison Salverda, Sharon Abner, Emmanuel Mena-Morcillo, Adam Zimmer, Abdallah Elsayed, Aicheng Chen
There is significant interest in the design of high-performance
electrocatalysts for efficient electrochemical reduction of CO2 to address the pressing environmental issue and climate change.
Herein, a novel copper–aluminum nanostructured catalyst is
fabricated via an alloying/dealloying technique. The effect of the
initial alloy’s elemental composition and subsequent dealloying,
via HCl acid treatments, on the stability and activity of the catalyst
for electrochemical CO2 reduction is studied. The optimized
porous catalyst shows high catalytic activity for the electrochemical
CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) with current
efficiencies achieving greater than 81%. Gas and liquid product analysis
confirms the formation of CO, H2, and HCOO–. Scanning electrochemical microscopy was employed to monitor the
activity of the catalyst and the CO2RR products. In situ electrochemical FTIR spectroscopic studies revealed
the first CO2RR intermediate was carbon-bound to the acid-treated
50:50 Cu/Al (at. %) alloy surface in a monodentate orientation. The
synthetic approach reported in the present study leads to a new promising
electrocatalyst with superior catalytic activity and high efficiencies
for the effective electrochemical reduction of CO2 to valuable
products.