Selective Electrochemical Reduction Of Carbon Dioxide To Ethylene On A Copper Hydroxide Nitrate Nanostructure Electrode

Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction (CO2RR) is a promising technology to convert CO(2)into valuable carbon-based fuels and chemicals. Copper (Cu) is a unique catalyst for this reaction as it yields substantial hydrocarbon products, but still suffers from low selectivity in aqueous solution. Here, we present a nanostructure Cu@Cu-2(OH)(3)NO(3)electrode using a facile molten salt decomposition method (MSDM). Both XPS and XRD data indicate that Cu-2(OH)(3)NO(3)is converted into metallic Cu when employed in CO(2)electroreduction in KHCO(3)solution, leaving abundant defects on the dendritic rough surface. Benefiting from the defects and rough surface, this electrode exhibited a high selectivity for C(2)H(4)production with a faradaic efficiency (FE) of 31.80% and a high stability for 20 h.