TY - JOUR
T1 - Cu2O Nano-flowers/Graphene Enabled Scaffolding Structure Catalyst Layer for Enhanced CO2 Electrochemical Reduction
AU - Wang, Yucheng
AU - Lei, Hanhui
AU - Lu, Shun
AU - Yang, Ziming
AU - Xu, Ben Bin
AU - Xing, Lei
AU - Liu, Terence Xiaoteng
N1 - Funding information: This work was supported by the UK Engineering Physics and Science Research Council (Grant No. EP/S032886/1), and the Royal Society International Exchanges Award (Grant No. IEC\NSFC\201008).
PY - 2022/5/15
Y1 - 2022/5/15
N2 - Nanosized Cu2O catalysts with precisely controlled bud-to-blooming flower shapes are synthesised using modified polyol method. The evolution of the shape when the catalysts are applied to the gas diffusion electrodes improves the key factors influencing the catalyst layer, e.g. volume porosity and triple-phase boundary contact areas. Numerical and experimental studies revealed increased reactant molar concentration and improved CO2 mass transfer due to the structural changes, which influenced the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (eCO2RR). The fully bloomed Cu2O nanoflower catalyst, combined with the two-dimensional (2D) structured graphene sheet, formed a catalyst layer with scaffolding structure that exhibited the highest Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 93.20% towards CO at an applied potential of −1.0 V vs. RHE in 1M KOH. These findings established the relationship between the catalyst layer properties and mass transfer, based on which we could describe the effect of the structural design of the catalyst layer on the eCO2RR performance.
AB - Nanosized Cu2O catalysts with precisely controlled bud-to-blooming flower shapes are synthesised using modified polyol method. The evolution of the shape when the catalysts are applied to the gas diffusion electrodes improves the key factors influencing the catalyst layer, e.g. volume porosity and triple-phase boundary contact areas. Numerical and experimental studies revealed increased reactant molar concentration and improved CO2 mass transfer due to the structural changes, which influenced the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (eCO2RR). The fully bloomed Cu2O nanoflower catalyst, combined with the two-dimensional (2D) structured graphene sheet, formed a catalyst layer with scaffolding structure that exhibited the highest Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 93.20% towards CO at an applied potential of −1.0 V vs. RHE in 1M KOH. These findings established the relationship between the catalyst layer properties and mass transfer, based on which we could describe the effect of the structural design of the catalyst layer on the eCO2RR performance.
KW - CO2 reduction reaction
KW - catalyst layer
KW - nanoflower
KW - graphene and modelling
U2 - 10.1016/j.apcatb.2021.121022
DO - 10.1016/j.apcatb.2021.121022
M3 - Article
SN - 0926-3373
VL - 305
JO - Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
JF - Applied Catalysis B: Environmental
M1 - 121022
ER -
