Journal of Energy Chemistry ›› 2023, Vol. 85 ›› Issue (10): 108-115.DOI: 10.1016/j.jechem.2023.06.004

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Cold plasma-activated Cu-Co catalysts with CN vacancies for enhancing CO2 electroreduction to low-carbon alcohol

Junyi Penga, Qiang Zhanga,*, Yang Zhoub, Xiaohui Yangc,*, Fang Guoa, Junqiang Xua,*   

  1. aCollege of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing 400054, China;
    bCollege of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China;
    cChongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing 4000714, China
  • Received:2023-03-24 Revised:2023-05-30 Accepted:2023-06-06 Online:2023-10-15 Published:2023-11-06
  • Contact: *E-mail addresses: zqiang@cqut.edu.cn (Q. Zhang), yangxiaohui@cigit.ac.cn (X. Yang), xujunqiang@cqut.edu.cn (J. Xu).

Abstract: Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction to low-carbon alcohol is a challenging task, especially high selectivity for ethanol, which is mainly limited by the regulation of reaction intermediates and subsequent C-C coupling. A Cu-Co bimetallic catalyst with CN vacancies is successfully developed by H2 cold plasma toward a high-efficiency CO2RR into low-carbon alcohol. The Cu-Co PBA-VCN (Prussian blue analogues with CN vacancies) electrocatalyst yields methanol and ethanol as major products with a total low-carbon alcohol FE of 83.8% (methanol: 39.2%, ethanol: 44.6%) at -0.9 V vs. RHE, excellent durability (100 h) and a small onset potential of -0.21 V. ATR-SEIRAS (attenuated total internal reflection surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy) and DFT (density functional theory) reveal that the steric hindrance of VCN can enhance the CO generation from *COOH, and the C-C coupling can also be increased by CO spillover on uniformly dispersed Cu atoms. This work provides a strategy for the design and preparation of electrocatalysts for CO2RR into low-carbon alcohol products and highlights the impact of catalyst steric hindrance to catalytic performance.

Key words: Cold plasma, CN vacancies, Steric hindrance, Bimetallic catalyst, Low-carbon alcohol