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Silica-copper catalyst interfaces enable carbon-carbon coupling towards ethylene electrosynthesis

Author

Listed:
  • Jun Li

    (University of Toronto
    University of Toronto)

  • Adnan Ozden

    (University of Toronto)

  • Mingyu Wan

    (University of Massachusetts Lowell)

  • Yongfeng Hu

    (University of Saskatchewan)

  • Fengwang Li

    (University of Toronto)

  • Yuhang Wang

    (University of Toronto)

  • Reza R. Zamani

    (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)

  • Dan Ren

    (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)

  • Ziyun Wang

    (University of Toronto)

  • Yi Xu

    (University of Toronto)

  • Dae-Hyun Nam

    (University of Toronto)

  • Joshua Wicks

    (University of Toronto)

  • Bin Chen

    (University of Toronto)

  • Xue Wang

    (University of Toronto)

  • Mingchuan Luo

    (University of Toronto)

  • Michael Graetzel

    (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)

  • Fanglin Che

    (University of Massachusetts Lowell)

  • Edward H. Sargent

    (University of Toronto)

  • David Sinton

    (University of Toronto)

Abstract

Membrane electrode assembly (MEA) electrolyzers offer a means to scale up CO2-to-ethylene electroconversion using renewable electricity and close the anthropogenic carbon cycle. To date, excessive CO2 coverage at the catalyst surface with limited active sites in MEA systems interferes with the carbon-carbon coupling reaction, diminishing ethylene production. With the aid of density functional theory calculations and spectroscopic analysis, here we report an oxide modulation strategy in which we introduce silica on Cu to create active Cu-SiOx interface sites, decreasing the formation energies of OCOH* and OCCOH*—key intermediates along the pathway to ethylene formation. We then synthesize the Cu-SiOx catalysts using one-pot coprecipitation and integrate the catalyst in a MEA electrolyzer. By tuning the CO2 concentration, the Cu-SiOx catalyst based MEA electrolyzer shows high ethylene Faradaic efficiencies of up to 65% at high ethylene current densities of up to 215 mA cm−2; and features sustained operation over 50 h.

Suggested Citation

  • Jun Li & Adnan Ozden & Mingyu Wan & Yongfeng Hu & Fengwang Li & Yuhang Wang & Reza R. Zamani & Dan Ren & Ziyun Wang & Yi Xu & Dae-Hyun Nam & Joshua Wicks & Bin Chen & Xue Wang & Mingchuan Luo & Michae, 2021. "Silica-copper catalyst interfaces enable carbon-carbon coupling towards ethylene electrosynthesis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-23023-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23023-0
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    Cited by:

    1. Jing Li & Haocheng Xiong & Xiaozhi Liu & Donghuan Wu & Dong Su & Bingjun Xu & Qi Lu, 2023. "Weak CO binding sites induced by Cu–Ag interfaces promote CO electroreduction to multi-carbon liquid products," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Xie, Heping & Liao, Hailong & Zhai, Shuo & Liu, Tao & Wu, Yifan & Wang, Fuhuan & Li, Junbiao & Zhang, Yuan & Chen, Bin, 2023. "Enhancing Zn–CO2 battery with a facile Pd doped perovskite cathode for efficient CO2 to CO conversion," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PB).
    3. Wenpeng Ni & Houjun Chen & Naizhuo Tang & Ting Hu & Wei Zhang & Yan Zhang & Shiguo Zhang, 2024. "High-purity ethylene production via indirect carbon dioxide electrochemical reduction," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.

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