Defect-Induced Selectivity Modulation Using Copper Triazole Molecular Frameworks for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction

Abstract

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are considered promising electrocatalytic materials due to their adjustable coordination bonds between metal ions and organic ligands. The abundance of metal centers within MOFs offers potential active sites. However, the limited availability of adsorption sites in the case of fully coordinated metal ions might lead to insufficient electrocatalytic activity. The selectivity is tuned during the electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction (eCO₂RR) using Cu-1H-1,2,3-triazole MOF from C₁ products to C₂₊ products by generating defects to enable a local increase in CO^* coverage, thus improving eCO₂RR performance. The catalyst exhibits ≈78.4% of total Faradaic efficiency for C₂₊ products at −200 mA cm⁻² current density in 1.0 m KOH as electrolyte.