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Xu F, Feng B, Shen Z, Chen Y, Jiao L, Zhang Y, Tian J, Zhang J, Wang X, Yang L, Wu Q, Hu Z. Oxygen-Bridged Cu Binuclear Sites for Efficient Electrocatalytic CO 2 Reduction to Ethanol at Ultralow Overpotential. J Am Chem Soc 2024; 146:9365-9374. [PMID: 38511947 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.4c01610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/22/2024]
Abstract
Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction (CO2RR) to alcohols offers a promising strategy for converting waste CO2 into valuable fuels/chemicals but usually requires large overpotentials. Herein, we report a catalyst comprising unique oxygen-bridged Cu binuclear sites (CuOCu-N4) with a Cu···Cu distance of 3.0-3.1 Å and concomitant conventional Cu-N4 mononuclear sites on hierarchical nitrogen-doped carbon nanocages (hNCNCs). The catalyst exhibits a state-of-the-art low overpotential of 0.19 V (versus reversible hydrogen electrode) for ethanol and an outstanding ethanol Faradaic efficiency of 56.3% at an ultralow potential of -0.30 V, with high-stable Cu active-site structures during the CO2RR as confirmed by operando X-ray adsorption fine structure characterization. Theoretical simulations reveal that CuOCu-N4 binuclear sites greatly enhance the C-C coupling at low potentials, while Cu-N4 mononuclear sites and the hNCNC support increase the local CO concentration and ethanol production on CuOCu-N4. This study provides a convenient approach to advanced Cu binuclear site catalysts for CO2RR to ethanol with a deep understanding of the mechanism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fengfei Xu
- Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Biao Feng
- Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Zhen Shen
- Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Yiqun Chen
- Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Liu Jiao
- Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Yan Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Jingyi Tian
- Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Junru Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Xizhang Wang
- Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Lijun Yang
- Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Qiang Wu
- Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
| | - Zheng Hu
- Key Laboratory of Mesoscopic Chemistry of MOE and Jiangsu Provincial Laboratory for Nanotechnology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
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Kong CJ, Ager JW. Electrochemical CO 2 reduction passes the acid test. Nat Nanotechnol 2024; 19:269-270. [PMID: 38151643 DOI: 10.1038/s41565-023-01571-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/29/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Calton J Kong
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
| | - Joel W Ager
- Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
- Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
- Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
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