Synergistic effects of interface and valence state on boosting electrochemical CO2 reduction activity of La2CuO4

Abstract

The electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CER) to methane (CH4) has received great attention. Here, we proposed an efficient method to facilitate the conversion of CO2-to-CH4 by creating a two-phase interface over urea-modified La2CuO4 catalyst. The most optimized one exhibits the highest selectivity (22%) for CH4 and the best activity (14 mA cm−2) and stability (5 h) at the potential of −1 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode. The enhanced CER performance can be attributed to the establishment of interfacial effect within the two-phase, which facilitates the reduction of Cu2+ and promotes the active sites concentration.