@article{80599d38f610455fa18cdfef140ce861,
title = "Engineering Silver-Enriched Copper Core-Shell Electrocatalysts to Enhance the Production of Ethylene and C2+ Chemicals from Carbon Dioxide at Low Cell Potentials",
abstract = "Copper catalysts are widely studied for the electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) to value-added hydrocarbon products. Controlling the surface composition of copper nanomaterials may provide the electronic and structural properties necessary for carbon-carbon coupling, thus increasing the Faradaic efficiency (FE) towards ethylene and other multi-carbon (C2+) products. Synthesis and catalytic study of silver-coated copper nanoparticles (Cu@Ag NPs) for the reduction of CO2 are presented. Bimetallic CuAg NPs are typically difficult to produce due to the bulk immiscibility between these two metals. Slow injection of the silver precursor, concentrations of organic capping agents, and gas environment proved critical to control the size and metal distribution of the Cu@Ag NPs. The optimized Cu@Ag electrocatalyst exhibited a very low onset cell potential of −2.25 V for ethylene formation, reaching a FE towards C2+ products (FEC2+) of 43% at −2.50 V, which is 1.0 V lower than a reference Cu catalyst to reach a similar FEC2+. The high ethylene formation at low potentials is attributed to enhanced C-C coupling on the Ag enriched shell of the Cu@Ag electrocatalysts. This study offers a new catalyst design towards increasing the efficiency for the electroreduction of CO2 to value-added chemicals.",
keywords = "carbon dioxide reduction, copper-silver, core-shell nanoparticles, electrocatalyst, ethylene",
author = "Kuhn, {Andrew N.} and Haidong Zhao and Nwabara, {Uzoma O.} and Xiaofei Lu and Mingyan Liu and Pan, {Yung Tin} and Wenjin Zhu and Kenis, {Paul J.A.} and Hong Yang",
note = "Funding Information: A.N.K., H.Z., and U.O.N. contributed equally to this work. The project was conceived by H.Y. Y.T.P., A.N.K., W.Z., H.Z., X.L., and M.L. conducted the synthesis, characterization, and catalytic property analysis. U.O.N. performed the experiments for the catalytic electroreduction of CO2. The manuscript was written by A.N.K., H.Z., U.O.N., P.J.A.K., and H.Y. The authors acknowledge the help of Cheng Zhang for running the EDXRF and its analysis. All authors have reviewed and given approval to the final version of the manuscript. Electron microscopy characterizations were carried out at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory Central Research Facilities, University of Illinois. The X-ray diffraction was carried out at the George L. Clark X-ray Facility and 3M Materials Laboratory, School of Chemical Science at UIUC. This work was supported in part by the International Institute of Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (WPI-I2CNER) sponsored by the Japanese Ministry for Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. U.O.N. greatly acknowledges 3M and the SURGE Fellowship from the University of Illinois. A.N.K. thanks the Stein Fellowship. Funding Information: A.N.K., H.Z., and U.O.N. contributed equally to this work. The project was conceived by H.Y. Y.T.P., A.N.K., W.Z., H.Z., X.L., and M.L. conducted the synthesis, characterization, and catalytic property analysis. U.O.N. performed the experiments for the catalytic electroreduction of CO. The manuscript was written by A.N.K., H.Z., U.O.N., P.J.A.K., and H.Y. The authors acknowledge the help of Cheng Zhang for running the EDXRF and its analysis. All authors have reviewed and given approval to the final version of the manuscript. Electron microscopy characterizations were carried out at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory Central Research Facilities, University of Illinois. The X‐ray diffraction was carried out at the George L. Clark X‐ray Facility and 3M Materials Laboratory, School of Chemical Science at UIUC. This work was supported in part by the International Institute of Carbon‐Neutral Energy Research (WPI‐ICNER) sponsored by the Japanese Ministry for Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. U.O.N. greatly acknowledges 3M and the SURGE Fellowship from the University of Illinois. A.N.K. thanks the Stein Fellowship. 2 2 Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH",
year = "2021",
month = jun,
day = "23",
doi = "10.1002/adfm.202101668",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "31",
journal = "Advanced Functional Materials",
issn = "1616-301X",
publisher = "Wiley-VCH",
number = "26",
}