Coverage enhancement accelerates acidic CO2 electrolysis at ampere-level current with high energy and carbon efficiencies

Abstract Acidic CO 2 electroreduction (CO 2 R) using renewable electricity holds promise for high-efficiency generation of storable liquid chemicals with up to 100% CO 2 utilization. However, the strong parasitic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) limits its selectivity and energy efficiency (EE), especially at ampere-level current densities. Here we present that enhancing CO 2 R intermediate coverage on catalysts promotes CO 2 R and concurrently suppresses HER. We identified and engineered robust Cu 6 Sn 5 catalysts with strong * OCHO affinity and weak * H binding, achieving 91% Faradaic efficiency (FE) for formic acid (FA) production at 1.2 A cm −2 and pH 1. Notably, the single-pass carbon efficiency reaches…

• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Award: 22272078
• GO
  Government of Jiangsu Province
• NU
  Nanjing University