Core-Shell ZnO@Cu2O as Catalyst to Enhance the Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide to C2 Products

Shuaikang Zhu,Xiaona Ren,Zheyuan Wang,Qingfa Wang,Yunxi Han,Shuang Xu,Xiaoxue Li,Xiaopo Niu,Miao Wang

doi:10.3390/catal11050535

Abstract

The copper-based catalyst is considered to be the only catalyst for electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction to produce a variety of hydrocarbons, but its low selectivity and low current density to C2 products restrict its development. Herein, a core-shell xZnO@yCu2O catalysts for electrochemical CO2 reduction was fabricated via a two-step route. The high selectivity of C2 products of 49.8% on ZnO@4Cu2O (ethylene 33.5%, ethanol 16.3%) with an excellent total current density of 140.1 mA cm−2 was achieved over this core-shell structure catalyst in a flow cell, in which the C2 selectivity was twice that of Cu2O. The high electrochemical activity for ECR to C2 products was attributed to the synergetic effects of the ZnO core and Cu2O shell, which not only enhanced the selectivity of the coordinating electron, improved the HER overpotential, and fastened the electron transfer, but also promoted the multielectron involved kinetics for ethylene and ethanol production. This work provides some new insights into the design of highly efficient Cu-based electrocatalysts for enhancing the selectivity of electrochemical CO2 reduction to produce high-value C2 products.

Highlights

IntroductionPublisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations
These results indicated that the introduction of ZnO with high the inhibition of HCOOH. These results indicated that the introduction of ZnO with high activity of CO2 to CO enhanced the CO–CO dimerization to generate C2 H4, which was activity of CO2 to CO enhanced the CO–CO dimerization to generate +C2H4, which was probably attributed to the high stability of OCCOH* intermediate on Cu derived from the probably attributed to the high stability of OCCOH* intermediate on Cu+ derived from
We synthesized a new type of catalyst with zinc core-copper shell by the sol–gel method and epitaxial shell growth method

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Great progress was made in the utilization of carbon dioxide (CO2 ), including the thermochemical, photochemical, and electrochemical methods. The electrochemical reduction of CO2 (ECR) is the main research in the current stage due to its great advantages of simple reaction conditions [1,2,3].

Methods

Results

Conclusion