Electroplating of Copper-Based Alloys for the Catalytic Conversion of CO2

Abstract

A variety of materials have been explored in the literature, but metals such as copper have been shown to uniquely generate appreciable amounts of hydrocarbon products during the electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2). Furthermore, alloying copper with other metals such as tin has also been demonstrated to tune the selectivity towards more desirable products and minimize the parasitic hydrogen evolution reaction. Herein, we describe the use of pulsed current methods to successfully electrodeposit particles of copper-tin alloys on the surface of commercially available gas diffusion layer (GDL) substrates. Images obtained from an optical microscope were used to qualitatively assess the uniformity of the deposited particles. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to qualitatively assess the size of these particles, which varied from micron-sized chunks to finer sub-micron particles. Additionally, x-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to identify the phase and composition of the alloys.