Highly Enhanced Chloride Adsorption Mediates Efficient Neutral CO<sub>2</sub> Electroreduction over a Dual-Phase Copper Catalyst
Peng‐Peng Yang, Xiaolong Zhang, Pei Liu, Daniel J. Kelly, Zhuang‐Zhuang Niu, Yan Kong, Lei Shi, Ya‐Rong Zheng, Minghui Fan, Huijuan Wang, Min‐Rui Gao
Abstract
Electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction (CO 2 R) in neutral electrolytes can mitigate the energy and carbon losses caused by carbonate formation but often experiences unsatisfied multicarbon selectivity and reaction rates because of the kinetic limitation to the critical carbon monoxide (CO)–CO coupling step. Here, we describe that a dual-phase copper-based catalyst with abundant Cu(I) sites at the amorphous–nanocrystalline interfaces, which is electrochemically robust in reducing environments, can enhance chloride-specific adsorption and consequently mediate local *CO coverage for improved CO–CO coupling kinetics. Using this catalyst design strategy, we demonstrate efficient multicarbon production from CO 2 R in a neutral potassium chloride electrolyte (pH ∼6.6) with a high Faradaic efficiency of 81% and a partial current density of 322 milliamperes per square centimeter. This catalyst is stable after 45 h of operation at current densities relevant to commercial CO 2 electrolysis (300 mA per square centimeter).