Cu‐MOFs Derived Porous Cu Nanoribbons with Strengthened Electric Field for Selective CO2 Electroreduction to C2+ Fuels

Abstract

AbstractThe electroreduction of carbon dioxide is a promising strategy to synthesize value‐added feedstocks and realize carbon neutralization. Copper catalysts are well‐known to be active for selective electroreduction of CO2 to multicarbon products, although the role played by the surface architecture is not fully understood. Herein, mesoporous Cu nanoribbons are constructed via in‐situ electrochemical reduction of Cu based metal organic frameworks for the highly selective synthesis of C2+ chemicals. With the mesoporous structure, a high C2+ Faradaic efficiency of 82.3% with a partial current density of 347.9 mA cm−2 is achieved in a flow‐cell electrolyzer. Controlled electroreduction of CO2 with Cu nanoribbons exhibited clearly greater selectivity towards C2+ products than Cu nanoleaves and Cu nanorods without porous structures. Finite difference time domain results indicate that the mesoporous structure can enhance the electric field on the catalyst surface, which increases the concentration of K+ and OH−, thus allowing the authors to promote CO2 reduction pathways towards C2+ products.