Search

Electroreduction of CO2 to valuable multicarbon (C2+) products is a highly attractive way to utilize and divert emitted CO2. However, a major fraction of C2+ selectivity is confined to less than 90% by the difficulty of coupling C-C bonds efficiently. Herein, we identify the stable Cu0/Cu2+ interfaces derived from copper phosphate-based (CuPO) electrocatalysts, which can facilitate C2+ production with a low-energy pathway of OC-CHO coupling verified by in situ spectra studies and theoretical calculations. The CuPO precatalyst shows a high Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 69.7% towards C2H4 in an H-cell, and exhibits a significant FEC2+ of 90.9% under industrially relevant current density (j = −350 mA cm−2) in a flow cell configuration. The stable Cu0/Cu2+ interface breaks new ground for the structural design of electrocatalysts and the construction of synergistic active sites to improve the activity and selectivity of valuable C2+ products. The electrosynthesis of multicarbon products from CO2 is a highly attractive way to utilize emitted CO2. Here, the authors report in situ formed Cu0/Cu2+ interfaces from copper phosphate-based electrocatalysts for promoting selectivity toward multicarbon products through OC-CHO coupling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water-alkali electrolysis for hydrogen production provides a feasible approach to relieve the energy crisis when combined with renewable electricity. Non-noble metal Ni–Mo alloy-based catalysts possess great potential to drive efficient alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction (HER); however, it suffers from weak stability due to the dealloying process. Here, we theoretically investigate the rational nitrogen alloying process in Ni–Mo nitrides to balance the activity and stability, while a moderate N ratio in Ni–Mo nitrides leads to a Volmer–Heyrovsky mechanism with a rapid water dissociation process. The synthesized metallic Ni2Mo3N electrode motivates an efficient alkaline HER process, exhibiting a low overpotential of 59.7 mV to achieve a current density of 10 mA cm−2 with a robust stability for 200 hours. In addition, the Ni2Mo3N electrocatalyst can be further used in an anion membrane flow cell for hydrogen production, reaching a high current density of 1.0 A cm−2 for over 50 h. We anticipate that this rational nitrogen alloying strategy can be adoptable for fabrication of efficient and durable electrodes for industry-scale alkaline water electrolysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]