Mediation of Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction by Electrodeposited Cu2O@Cu Hierarchical Polyhedrals

Abstract

In this work, we demonstrated Cu₂O@Cu hierarchical structures for electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction reactions (CO₂RR). The electrocatalysts were achieved by a one-step electrodeposition method, in which the compositional ratios and surface morphologies could be engineered by simply varying the operative parameters including the precursor concentration, deposition temperature, deposition time and deposition voltage. At optimal conditions, a total Faradic efficiency of 73.0% toward C₁ products including HCOOH and CO was attained. The electrocatalytic mechanism was then explored, where the Cu-OH_ad intermediates adsorbed at the Cu₂O surfaces during the electrodeposition process were transformed into Cu⁰ that was capable of mediating the electrocatalytic CO₂RR performances.