Facile synthesis of cubic cuprous oxide for electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide
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Facile synthesis of cubic cuprous oxide for electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide Juqin Zeng1,* , Micaela Castellino2 , Katarzyna Bejtka1 , Adriano Sacco1 , Gaia Di Martino1,2, M. Amin Farkhondehfal1 , Angelica Chiodoni1 , Simelys Herna´ndez1,2 and Candido F. Pirri1,2 1 2
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Center for Sustainable Future Technologies @POLITO, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Livorno 60, 10144 Turin, Italy Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, C.so Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Turin, Italy
Received: 19 April 2020
ABSTRACT
Accepted: 1 September 2020
High level of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration is considered one of the main causes of global warming. Electrochemical conversion of CO2 into valuable chemicals and fuels has promising potential to be implemented into practical and sustainable devices. In order to efficiently realize this strategy, one of the biggest efforts has been focused on the design of catalysts which are inexpensive, active and selective and can be produced through green and upscalable routes. In this work, copper-based materials are simply synthesized via microwave-assisted process and carefully characterized by physical/chemical/electrochemical techniques. Nanoparticle with a cupric oxide (CuO) surface as well as various cuprous oxide (Cu2O) cubes with different sizes is obtained and used for the CO2 reduction reaction. It is observed that the Cu2O-derived electrodes show enhanced activity and carbon monoxide (CO) selectivity compared to the CuO-derived one. Among various Cu2O catalysts, the one with the smallest cubes leads to the best CO selectivity of the electrode, attributed to a higher electrochemically active surface area. Under applied potentials, all Cu2O cubes undergo structural and morphological modification, even though the cubic shape is retained. The nanoclusters formed during the material evolution offer abundant and active reaction sites, leading to the high performance of the Cu2O-derived electrodes.
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The Author(s) 2020
Handling Editor: Kyle Brinkman.
Address correspondence to E-mail: [email protected]
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-05278-y
J Mater Sci
GRAPHIC ABSTRACT
Introduction The global energy supply based on fossil fuels has reached an unprecedented scale leading to excess anthropogenic CO2 emission. CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere, and its concentration has surpassed 400 ppm in 2016, much higher than the 270 ppm during the pre-industrial era [1]. As a well-known greenhouse gas, accumulated CO2 traps more infrared radiation, breaking the energy balance on the earth’s surface. Although atmospheric CO2 concentration can be balanced by natural absorption (by the ocean and vegetation), the continuous increase in CO2 concentration indicates that anthropogenic CO2 emission has upset the natural balance, thus leading to global warming and climate change. Using CO2 as feedstock to produce valuable carbon-based chemicals is considered to be a feasible approach to close the carbon cycle and mitigate the climate change. Many
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