Synthesis of n‐Propanol from CO<sub>2</sub> Electroreduction on Bicontinuous Cu<sub>2</sub>O/Cu Nanodomains
Renjie Zhang, Jianling Zhang, Sha Wang, Zhonghao Tan, Yisen Yang, Yi Song, Meiling Li, Yingzhe Zhao, Hao Wang, Buxing Han, Ran Duan
Abstract
Abstract n‐propanol is an important pharmaceutical and pesticide intermediate. To produce n‐propanol by electrochemical reduction of CO 2 is a promising way, but is largely restricted by the very low selectivity and activity. How to promote the coupling of *C 1 and *C 2 intermediates to form the *C 3 intermediate for n‐propanol formation is challenging. Here, we propose the construction of bicontinuous structure of Cu 2 O/Cu electrocatalyst, which consists of ultra‐small Cu 2 O nanodomains, Cu nanodomains and large amounts of grain boundaries between Cu 2 O and Cu nanodomains. The n‐propanol current density is as high as 101.6 mA cm −2 at the applied potential of −1.1 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode in flow cell, with the Faradaic efficiency up to 12.1 %. Moreover, the catalyst keeps relatively stable during electrochemical CO 2 reduction process. Experimental studies and theoretical calculations reveal that the bicontinuous structure of Cu 2 O/Cu can facilitate the *CO formation, *CO‐*CO coupling and *CO‐*OCCO coupling for the final generation of n‐propanol.