Stabilizing Copper by a Reconstruction-Resistant Atomic Cu–O–Si Interface for Electrochemical CO<sub>2</sub> Reduction
Xin Tan, Kaian Sun, Zewen Zhuang, Botao Hu, Yu Zhang, Qinggang Liu, Chang He, Zhiyuan Xu, Chang Chen, Chang Chen, Hai Xiao, Chen Chen, Chen Chen
Abstract
Copper (Cu), a promising catalyst for electrochemical CO 2 reduction (CO 2 R) to multi-electron reduction products, suffers from an unavoidable and uncontrollable reconstruction process during the reaction, which not only may lead to catalyst deactivation but also brings great challenges to the exploration of the structure–performance relationship. Herein, we present an efficient strategy for stabilizing Cu with silica and synthesize reconstruction-resistant CuSiO x amorphous nanotube catalysts with abundant atomic Cu–O–Si interfacial sites. The strong interfacial interaction between Cu and silica makes the Cu–O–Si interfacial sites ultrastable in the CO 2 R reaction without any apparent reconstruction, thus exhibiting high CO 2 -to-CH 4 selectivity (72.5%) and stability (FE CH 4 remains above 60% after 12 h of test). A remarkable CO 2 -to-CH 4 conversion rate of 0.22 μmol cm –2 s –1 was also achieved in a flow cell device. This work provides a very promising route for the design of highly active and stable Cu-based CO 2 R catalysts.