CeO₂-promoted Cu₂O-based catalyst sprayed on gas diffusion layer for the electroreduction of carbon dioxide to ethylene

Abstract

The development of efficient and selective catalysts for carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO₂RR) is crucial for sustainable energy and chemical synthesis. In this work, CeO_2-y (y = C (cubic) and R (rod)) was incorporated to Cu₂O nanocubes electrocatalyst as promoter for ethylene (C₂H₄) production. The results demonstrate that the catalyst with a loading of 5 wt.% of crystalline CeO_2-C exhibits competitive activity and stability for ethylene production compared to pristine Cu₂O. Under optimized reaction conditions of -250 mA cm^-2 current density and 1 M KOH electrolyte, the Cu₂O-5CeO_2-C catalyst achieved a Faradaic efficiency (FE) of ~53% for C₂H₄ production, while maintaining stability over a period of 120 minutes. In contrast, non-promoted Cu₂O exhibited a lower FE for C₂H₄ (~38%) and experienced partial deactivation after 45 minutes. The characterization of the catalysts before and after the reaction revealed that the interaction between Cu₂O and CeO_2-C creates intrinsic sites (Cu^x-CeO_2-x; Cu^x = Cu²⁺, Cu⁺, Cu⁰) for the binding of CO₂ and H₂O molecules. Moreover, the Cu₂O-5CeO_2-C catalyst outperforms other reported systems in terms of FE and partial current density for C₂H₄ production. It requires a lower potential (-0.98 V vs. RHE) to operate at the same electrolyte concentration. This finding highlights the promising nature of Cu₂O-5CeO_2-C as an efficient and cost-effective catalyst for C₂H₄ production.

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