Electro-derived Cu-Cu 2 O nanocluster from LDH for stable and selective C 2 hydrocarbons production from CO 2 electrochemical reduction

Recently, CO2 conversion by electrochemical tool into value-added chemicals has been considered as one of the most promising strategies to offer sustainable development in energy and environment. In this contribution, we investigated electro-derived composites from Cu-based layered double hydroxide (LDH) for CO2 electrochemical reduction. The Cu-Cu2O based nanocomposite (HPR-LDH) were derived by using electro-strategy from LDH having the stability up to 20 h and selectivity toward C2H4 with faraday efficiency up to 36% by significantly suppressing CH4 and H2 with respect to bulk Cu foil. A highly negative reduction potential derived catalyst (HPR-LDH) maintained long-term stability for the selective production of ethylene over methane, and a small amount of Cu2O was still observed on the catalyst surface after CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR). Moreover, such unique strategy for electro-derived composite from LDH having small nanoparticles stacked each other grown on layered structure, would provide new insight to improve durability of O[sbnd]Cu combination catalysts for C[sbnd]C coupling products during electrochemical CO2 conversion by suppressing HER. The XRD, SEM, ESR, and XPS analyses confirmed that the long-term ethylene selectivity of HPR-LDH is due to the presence of subsurface oxygen. The designed composite catalyst significantly enhances the stability and selectivity, and also decreases the over potential for CO2 electro-reduction. We predict that the new designed LDH 2D-derived composites may attract new insight for transition metal and may open up a new direction for known structural properties of selective catalyst synthesis regarding effective CO2 reduction reaction. © 2019