Ethanol assisted cyclic voltammetry treatment of copper for electrochemical CO2 reduction to ethylene

Renewable energy driven electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide into fuels and chemicals is one of the promising methods to achieve carbon neutrality. However, the development of high activity and selectivity catalysts remains a great challenge. Herein, we report the cyclic voltammetry (CV) treatment of copper with a mixed aqueous electrolyte solution of KOH and ethanol to obtain highly porous nanoparticle structures (Cu-KOH/Ethanol-CV). The as-obtained catalyst achieves a Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 42.1% for ethylene production with a partial current density of-15 mA/cm(2) in an H-cell, and a FE of C(2)H(4 )of 48.4% at the current densities of-200 mA/cm(2) in a flow cell. Our results demonstrate that the enhanced C(2)H(4 )production in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction is not only correlated to the increase of electrochemically surface area but also to the extensive exposure of defect sites. Our work provides a new and facile approach for designing efficient catalysts for C2H4 production in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction. (C) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.