Operando Reconstruction of Porous Carbon Supported Copper Selenide Promotes the C2 Production from CO2RR

Abstract

AbstractPrecisely regulating surface reconstruction of copper (Cu) chalcogenides‐based catalysts to promote the multicarbon (C2+)selectivity of the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) is hampered by the challenging control of the intractable anions and the optimal Cuδ+ reduction (0 < δ < 1). Herein, a porous carbon‐supported copper selenides electrocatalyst that can remarkably improve the C2‐product yield and especially unveil the time‐revolved electrochemical CO2RR reconstruction process to enable the high C2‐selectivity, most notably for ethanol is constructed. The Faradic efficiency (FE) of C2‐products achieved is as high as ≈85.2% with a partial current density of 229.5 mA cm−2. Operando infrared spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations unravel that the surface Se vacancies (VSe) formation brings closer the neighboring Cu+ atoms and activates the Cu sites, thereby rendering efficient generation of the key intermediates (*CO and *CHO) and lowering the C–C coupling barrier for C2 production. The appearance of metallic Cu can shorten the next‐nearest Cu0–Cu+ distance for O atom to bridge in, leading to the preferential formation of *OC2H4 towards ethanol instead of C–O bond cleavage to form ethylene. This work opens the avenue of designing suitable local atomic structures catalysts to engage the intermediates for targeted CO2RR products.