Copper adparticle enabled selective electrosynthesis of n-propanol
Date
2019
Authors
Li, Jun
Che, Fanglin
Pang, Yuanjie
Zou, Chengqin
Howe, Jane Y.
Burdyny, Thomas
Edwards, Jonathan P.
Wang, Yuhang
Li, Fengwang
Wang, Ziyun
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Nature Communications
Abstract
The electrochemical reduction of carbon monoxide is a promising approach for the renewable production of carbon-based fuels and chemicals. Copper shows activity toward multi-carbon products from CO reduction, with reaction selectivity favoring two-carbon products; however, efficient conversion of CO to higher carbon products such as n-propanol, a liquid fuel, has yet to be achieved. We hypothesize that copper adparticles, possessing a high density of under-coordinated atoms, could serve as preferential sites for n-propanol formation. Density functional theory calculations suggest that copper adparticles increase CO binding energy and stabilize two-carbon intermediates, facilitating coupling between adsorbed *CO and two-carbon intermediates to form three-carbon products. We form adparticle-covered catalysts in-situ by mediating catalyst growth with strong CO chemisorption. The new catalysts exhibit an n-propanol Faradaic efficiency of 23% from CO reduction at an n-propanol partial current density of 11 mA cm-2.
Description
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Citation
Li, J., Che, F., Pang, Y., Zou, C., Howe, J. Y., Burdyny, T., Edwards, J. P., Wang, Y., Li, F., Wang, Z., De Luna, P., Dinh, C., Zhuang, T., Saidaminov, M. I., Cheng, S., Wu, T., Finfrock, Y. Z., Ma, L., Hsieh, S., . . . Sinton, D. (2018). Copper adparticle enabled selective electrosynthesis of n-propanol. Nature Communications, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07032-0