Electrochemical CO2 2 reduction to syngas on copper mesh electrode: Alloying strategy for tuning syngas composition

Electrochemical CO2 2 reduction to synthetic fuels and commodity chemicals using renewable energy offers a promising approach to mitigate CO2 2 emissions and alleviate energy crisis. Copper-based catalysts show potential for electrochemical CO2 2 reduction applications, while they face the key challenges of high potential, sluggish kinetics, and poor selectivity. In this work, Cu-Zn, Cu-Co, Cu-Cd, and Cu-In bimetallic catalysts are synthesized via the electrodeposition method for electrochemical CO2 2 reduction to syngas with adjustable CO/H2 2 ratios. The bimetallic catalysts are characterized using various techniques to reveal their crystalline structures, morphologies, and elemental compositions. The structure-property-activity relationships of these catalysts are investigated to identify optimal candidates for electrochemical CO2 2 reduction applications. The findings reveal that the bare Cu mesh catalyst exhibits poor CO2 2 reduction activity, and the products are dominated by hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The bimetallic catalysts exhibit improved CO2 2 reduction performance, with the Cu-Zn and Cu-Cd catalysts showing excellent activity, and the CO/H2 2 ratio in syngas can be tuned over a wide range by adjusting the applied potential. The Cu-Zn and Cu-Cd catalysts demonstrate outstanding performance with Faradic efficiencies of ' 90 % and ' 80 % towards syngas production with CO/H2 2 ratios of ' 2.0 and ' 1.5 at- 0.81 and- 1.01 V vs. RHE, respectively, making the produced syngas suitable for various industrial applications. Stability tests over 450 min show that the Cu-Zn and Cu-Cd catalysts maintain stable catalytic activity, syngas selectivity and CO/H2 2 ratio, making them robust candidates for syngas production. The results will provide valuable insights into the design of robust catalysts for electrochemical CO2 2 reduction, offering a promising path toward sustainable syngas production.