Enhanced multi-carbon alcohol electroproduction from CO via modulated hydrogen adsorption.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32703956.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-17499-5 and PMC identifier 7378828.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Multi-carbon alcohols such as ethanol are valued as fuels in view of their high energy density and ready transport. Unfortunately, the selectivity toward alcohols in CO<sub>2</sub>/CO electroreduction is diminished by ethylene production, especially when operating at high current densities (>100 mA cm<sup>-2</sup>). Here we report a metal doping approach to tune the adsorption of hydrogen at the copper surface and thereby promote alcohol production. Using density functional theory calculations, we screen a suite of transition metal dopants and find that incorporating Pd in Cu moderates hydrogen adsorption and assists the hydrogenation of C<sub>2</sub> intermediates, providing a means to favour alcohol production and suppress ethylene. We synthesize a Pd-doped Cu catalyst that achieves a Faradaic efficiency of 40% toward alcohols and a partial current density of 277 mA cm<sup>-2</sup> from CO electroreduction. The activity exceeds that of prior reports by a factor of 2.