IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v9y2018i1d10.1038_s41467-018-06311-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Copper-on-nitride enhances the stable electrosynthesis of multi-carbon products from CO2

Author

Listed:
  • Zhi-Qin Liang

    (University of Toronto
    Beijing Jiaotong University, Ministry of Education)

  • Tao-Tao Zhuang

    (University of Toronto)

  • Ali Seifitokaldani

    (University of Toronto)

  • Jun Li

    (University of Toronto
    University of Toronto)

  • Chun-Wei Huang

    (Industrial Technology Research Institute)

  • Chih-Shan Tan

    (University of Toronto)

  • Yi Li

    (University of Science and Technology of China)

  • Phil De Luna

    (University of Toronto)

  • Cao Thang Dinh

    (University of Toronto)

  • Yongfeng Hu

    (Canadian Light Source (CLS))

  • Qunfeng Xiao

    (Canadian Light Source (CLS))

  • Pei-Lun Hsieh

    (National Tsing Hua University)

  • Yuhang Wang

    (University of Toronto)

  • Fengwang Li

    (University of Toronto)

  • Rafael Quintero-Bermudez

    (University of Toronto)

  • Yansong Zhou

    (University of Toronto)

  • Peining Chen

    (University of Toronto)

  • Yuanjie Pang

    (University of Toronto
    University of Toronto)

  • Shen-Chuan Lo

    (Industrial Technology Research Institute)

  • Lih-Juann Chen

    (National Tsing Hua University)

  • Hairen Tan

    (University of Toronto)

  • Zheng Xu

    (Beijing Jiaotong University, Ministry of Education)

  • Suling Zhao

    (Beijing Jiaotong University, Ministry of Education)

  • David Sinton

    (University of Toronto)

  • Edward H. Sargent

    (University of Toronto)

Abstract

Copper-based materials are promising electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction. Prior studies show that the mixture of copper (I) and copper (0) at the catalyst surface enhances multi-carbon products from CO2 reduction; however, the stable presence of copper (I) remains the subject of debate. Here we report a copper on copper (I) composite that stabilizes copper (I) during CO2 reduction through the use of copper nitride as an underlying copper (I) species. We synthesize a copper-on-nitride catalyst that exhibits a Faradaic efficiency of 64 ± 2% for C2+ products. We achieve a 40-fold enhancement in the ratio of C2+ to the competing CH4 compared to the case of pure copper. We further show that the copper-on-nitride catalyst performs stable CO2 reduction over 30 h. Mechanistic studies suggest that the use of copper nitride contributes to reducing the CO dimerization energy barrier—a rate-limiting step in CO2 reduction to multi-carbon products.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhi-Qin Liang & Tao-Tao Zhuang & Ali Seifitokaldani & Jun Li & Chun-Wei Huang & Chih-Shan Tan & Yi Li & Phil De Luna & Cao Thang Dinh & Yongfeng Hu & Qunfeng Xiao & Pei-Lun Hsieh & Yuhang Wang & Fengw, 2018. "Copper-on-nitride enhances the stable electrosynthesis of multi-carbon products from CO2," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-06311-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06311-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06311-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-018-06311-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xiaozhi Su & Zhuoli Jiang & Jing Zhou & Hengjie Liu & Danni Zhou & Huishan Shang & Xingming Ni & Zheng Peng & Fan Yang & Wenxing Chen & Zeming Qi & Dingsheng Wang & Yu Wang, 2022. "Complementary Operando Spectroscopy identification of in-situ generated metastable charge-asymmetry Cu2-CuN3 clusters for CO2 reduction to ethanol," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Marvin L. Frisch & Longfei Wu & Clément Atlan & Zhe Ren & Madeleine Han & Rémi Tucoulou & Liang Liang & Jiasheng Lu & An Guo & Hong Nhan Nong & Aleks Arinchtein & Michael Sprung & Julie Villanova & Ma, 2023. "Unraveling the synergistic effects of Cu-Ag tandem catalysts during electrochemical CO2 reduction using nanofocused X-ray probes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Qiong Lei & Liang Huang & Jun Yin & Bambar Davaasuren & Youyou Yuan & Xinglong Dong & Zhi-Peng Wu & Xiaoqian Wang & Ke Xin Yao & Xu Lu & Yu Han, 2022. "Structural evolution and strain generation of derived-Cu catalysts during CO2 electroreduction," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Yajun Zheng & Hedan Yao & Ruinan Di & Zhicheng Xiang & Qiang Wang & Fangfang Lu & Yu Li & Guangxing Yang & Qiang Ma & Zhiping Zhang, 2022. "Water coordinated on Cu(I)-based catalysts is the oxygen source in CO2 reduction to CO," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-06311-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.