N-doped reduced graphene oxide supported Cu2O nanocubes as high active catalyst for CO2 electroreduction to C2H4

Electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction (CO2RR) to high value-added chemicals is a promising technology to address greenhouse effect and energy challenges. As ethylene is a desirable product of CO2RR with great economic value, herein, we proposed a facile method to in situ loading cuprous oxide (Cu2O) nanocubes on nitrogen doped reduced graphene oxide (NRGO) to fabricate a Cu2O/NRGO composite under ambient conditions, which exits a high faradaic efficiency of ethylene (19.7%) at -1.4 V (vs. reversible hydrogen electrode) with stable current density of 12 mA cm(-2). The mass activity of Cu2O supported on NRGO towards C2H4 formation reaches as high as 136.1 mmol h(-1) g(-1), which is more than 24-folds of pristine Cu2O.SEM images reveal that Cu2O with perfect cubic morphology are highly dispersed on NRGO, promoting the exposure of active sites for CO2RR. Additionally, the pyridinic-N in NRGO was supposed to behave synergistic effect with Cu2O, leading to a clearly improvement of activity and durability of Cu2O for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to ethylene. Our work provides a useful strategy to enhance the catalytic performance of copper catalysts for CO2RR by using nitrogen doped carbon materials as supports. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.