Hydroxide promotes carbon dioxide electroreduction to ethanol on copper via tuning of adsorbed hydrogen.

ABSTRACT: Producing liquid fuels such as ethanol from CO₂, H₂O, and renewable electricity offers a route to store sustainable energy. The search for efficient electrocatalysts for the CO₂ reduction reaction relies on tuning the adsorption strength of carbonaceous intermediates. Here, we report a complementary approach in which we utilize hydroxide and oxide doping of a catalyst surface to tune the adsorbed hydrogen on Cu. Density functional theory studies indicate that this doping accelerates water dissociation and changes the hydrogen adsorption energy on Cu. We synthesize and investigate a suite of metal-hydroxide-interface-doped-Cu catalysts, and find that the most efficient, Ce(OH)_x-doped-Cu, exhibits an ethanol Faradaic efficiency of 43% and a partial

SUBMITTER: Luo M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6925210 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature