Turning copper into gold — Tuning a gas diffusion electrode catalyst for the efficient conversion of CO[formula omitted] to C[formula omitted]H[formula omitted] or CO.

Copper is regarded as a unique electrocatalyst for the CO 2 reduction reaction as it is able to produce products that require more than two electrons, such as C 2 H 4 and C 2 H 5 OH. When combined with the high activity of a gas diffusion electrode, copper becomes a great choice of catalyst for the CO 2 reduction reaction, however, it has a history of poor selectivity for a given product. In this work, we have synthesised a CuO electrocatalyst that has typical copper-like selectivity initially, however, as we tune the Nafion loading, we are able to shift the selectivity towards that of a gold-based catalyst. We propose that this is due to the Nafion providing an in-penetrable barrier to the electrolyte that prevents the catalyst from being flooded, which is supported by electrochemical, XAS, and TEM analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]