Electrochemical CO2 reduction to syngas on copper mesh electrode: Alloying strategy for tuning syngas composition

Abstract

Electrochemical CO₂ reduction to synthetic fuels and commodity chemicals using renewable energy offers a promising approach to mitigate CO₂ emissions and alleviate energy crisis. Copper-based catalysts show potential for electrochemical CO₂ reduction applications, while they face the key challenges of high potential, sluggish kinetics, and poor selectivity. In this work, Cu-Zn, Cu-Co, Cu-Cd, and Cu-In bimetallic catalysts are synthesized via the electrodeposition method for electrochemical CO₂ reduction to syngas with adjustable CO/H₂ ratios. The bimetallic catalysts are characterized using various techniques to reveal their crystalline structures, morphologies, and elemental compositions. The structure-property-activity relationships of these catalysts are investigated to identify optimal candidates for electrochemical CO₂ reduction applications. The findings reveal that the bare Cu mesh catalyst exhibits poor CO₂ reduction activity, and the products are dominated by hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The bimetallic catalysts exhibit improved CO₂ reduction performance, with the Cu-Zn and Cu-Cd catalysts showing excellent activity, and the CO/H₂ ratio in syngas can be tuned over a wide range by adjusting the applied potential. The Cu-Zn and Cu-Cd catalysts demonstrate outstanding performance with Faradic efficiencies of ∼90 % and ∼80 % towards syngas production with CO/H₂ ratios of ∼2.0 and ∼1.5 at −0.81 and −1.01 V vs. RHE, respectively, making the produced syngas suitable for various industrial applications. Stability tests over 450 min show that the Cu-Zn and Cu-Cd catalysts maintain stable catalytic activity, syngas selectivity and CO/H₂ ratio, making them robust candidates for syngas production. The results will provide valuable insights into the design of robust catalysts for electrochemical CO₂ reduction, offering a promising path toward sustainable syngas production.