Electrocatalytic CO₂-to-C₂₊ with Ampere-Level Current on Heteroatom-Engineered Copper via Tuning *CO Intermediate Coverage

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Abstract

An ampere-level current density of CO2 electrolysis is critical to realize the industrial production of multicarbon (C2+) fuels. However, under such a large current density, the poor CO intermediate (*CO) coverage on the catalyst surface induces the competitive hydrogen evolution reaction, which hinders CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR). Herein, we report reliable ampere-level CO2-to-C2+ electrolysis by heteroatom engineering on Cu catalysts. The Cu-based compounds with heteroatom (N, P, S, O) are electrochemically reduced to heteroatom-derived Cu with significant structural reconstruction under CO2RR conditions. It is found that N-engineered Cu (N–Cu) catalyst exhibits the best CO2-to-C2+ productivity with a remarkable Faradaic efficiency of 73.7% under −1100 mA cm–2 and an energy efficiency of 37.2% under −900 mA cm–2. Particularly, it achieves a C2+ partial current density of −909 mA cm–2 at −1.15 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode, which outperforms most reported Cu-based catalysts. In situ spectroscopy indicates that heteroatom engineering adjusts *CO adsorption on Cu surface and alters the local H proton consumption in solution. Density functional theory studies confirm that the high adsorption strength of *CO on N–Cu results from the depressed HER and promoted *CO adsorption on both bridge and atop sites of Cu, which greatly reduces the energy barrier for C–C coupling.

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