Tuning the Selectivity of Carbon Dioxide Electroreduction toward Ethanol on Oxide-Derived Cu x Zn Catalysts

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) to ethanol (C2H5OH) and ethylene (C2H4) using renewable electricity is a viable method for the production of these commercially vital chemicals. Copper (Cu) and its oxides are by far the most effective electrocatalysts for this purpose. However, the formation of ethanol using these catalysts is generally less favored in comparison to that of ethylene. In this work, we demonstrate that the selectivity of CO2 reduction toward ethanol could be tuned by introducing a cocatalyst to generate an in situ source of mobile CO reactant. Cu-based oxides with different amounts of Zn dopants (Cu, Cu10Zn, Cu4Zn, and Cu2Zn) were prepared and used as catalysts under ambient…

• NU
  National University of Singapore

  Award: R143-000-587-112
• MO
  Ministry of Education - Singapore