Tuning the Microenvironment in Monolayer MgAl Layered Double Hydroxide for CO<sub>2</sub>‐to‐Ethylene Electrocatalysis in Neutral Media
Yi Xu, Wenjing Li, Huai Qin Fu, Xinyu Zhang, Jia Zhao, Xuefeng Wu, Hai Yang Yuan, Minghui Zhu, Sheng Dai, Peng Fei Liu, Hua Gui Yang
Abstract
Abstract The electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide provides a feasibility to achieve a carbon‐neutral energy cycle. However, there are a number of bottleneck issues to be resolved before industrial application, such as the low conversion efficiency, selectivity and reaction rate, etc. Engineering local environment is a critical way to address these challenges. Here, a monolayer MgAl‐LDH was proposed to optimize the local environment of Cu for stimulating industrial‐current‐density CO 2 ‐to‐C 2 H 4 electroreduction in neutral media. In situ spectroscopic results and theoretical study demonstrated that the Cu electrode modified by MgAl‐LDH (MgAl‐LDH/Cu) displayed a much higher surface pH value compared to the bare Cu, which could be attributed to the decreased energy barrier for hydrolysis on MgAl‐LDH sites with more OH − ions on the surface of the electrode. As a result, MgAl‐LDH/Cu achieved a C 2 H 4 Faradaic efficiency of 55.1 % at a current density up to 300 mA cm −2 in 1.0 M KHCO 3 electrolyte.