A robust and high performance copper silicide catalyst for electrochemical CO2 reduction

0582978 - ÚCHP 2025 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Dřínek, Vladislav - Dytrych, Pavel - Fajgar, Radek - Klementová, Mariana - Kupčík, Jaroslav - Kopeček, Jaromír - Svora, Petr - Koštejn, Martin - Jandová, Věra - Soukup, Karel - Beránek, R.
A robust and high performance copper silicide catalyst for electrochemical CO2 reduction.
Materials Advances. Roč. 5, č. 7 (2024), s. 2917-2925. E-ISSN 2633-5409
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT LM2023051
Grant - others:AV ČR(CZ) StrategieAV21/3; DF(DE) DFG-BE 5102/5-1
Program: StrategieAV
Institutional support: RVO:67985858 ; RVO:68378271
Keywords : Cu-Si * phase selectivity * Cu3S1
OECD category: Nano-processes (applications on nano-scale)
Impact factor: 5, year: 2022
Method of publishing: Open access
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2024/ma/d3ma00633f

A copper-based catalyst CuxSi (3<x<5) was prepared using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of butylsilane (BuSiH3) on copper substrates. By varying the precursor flow, we obtained two catalyst variants, one with and one without a SiCx shell. Both variants exhibited large specific areas, owing to the presence of grown nanostructures such as nanoplatelets, nan-owires, nanoribbons, and microwires. Remarkably, the catalytic performance of both variants remained stable even after 720 hours of continuous operation. The porous and thick catalyst layer (over a hundred micrometers) on the substrate significantly increased the residence time of intermediates during the electrochemical CO2 reduction reactions (eCO2RR). We observed a high selectivity towards ethanol (~79%) in neutral CO2-saturated electrolytes and a high selectivity towards acetic acid (~72%) in alkaline electrolytes. Importantly, the ratio between generated ethanol and acetate could be shifted by adjusting the pH and applied potential. This work thus establishes copper silicides as robust and promising electrocatalysts for selective CO2 conversion to high-value multi-carbon products.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0351009