Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Enhanced multi-carbon alcohol electroproduction from CO via modulated hydrogen adsorption

2020; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 11; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/s41467-020-17499-5

2041-1723

Jun Li, Aoni Xu, Fengwang Li, Ziyun Wang, Chengqin Zou, Christine M. Gabardo, Yuhang Wang, Adnan Ozden, Yi Xu, Dae‐Hyun Nam, Yanwei Lum, Joshua Wicks, Bin Chen, Zhiqiang Wang, Jiatang Chen, Yunzhou Wen, Tao‐Tao Zhuang, Mingchuan Luo, Xi‐Wen Du, Tsun‐Kong Sham, Bo Zhang, Edward H. Sargent, David Sinton,

Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion

Abstract Multi-carbon alcohols such as ethanol are valued as fuels in view of their high energy density and ready transport. Unfortunately, the selectivity toward alcohols in CO 2 /CO electroreduction is diminished by ethylene production, especially when operating at high current densities (>100 mA cm −2 ). Here we report a metal doping approach to tune the adsorption of hydrogen at the copper surface and thereby promote alcohol production. Using density functional theory calculations, we screen a suite of transition metal dopants and find that incorporating Pd in Cu moderates hydrogen adsorption and assists the hydrogenation of C 2 intermediates, providing a means to favour alcohol production and suppress ethylene. We synthesize a Pd-doped Cu catalyst that achieves a Faradaic efficiency of 40% toward alcohols and a partial current density of 277 mA cm −2 from CO electroreduction. The activity exceeds that of prior reports by a factor of 2.