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Journal ArticleDOI

CO2 electroreduction to ethylene via hydroxide-mediated copper catalysis at an abrupt interface

TL;DR: A copper electrocatalyst at an abrupt reaction interface in an alkaline electrolyte reduces CO2 to ethylene with 70% faradaic efficiency at a potential of −0.55 volts versus a reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE).
Abstract: Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) electroreduction could provide a useful source of ethylene, but low conversion efficiency, low production rates, and low catalyst stability limit current systems. Here we report that a copper electrocatalyst at an abrupt reaction interface in an alkaline electrolyte reduces CO 2 to ethylene with 70% faradaic efficiency at a potential of −0.55 volts versus a reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). Hydroxide ions on or near the copper surface lower the CO 2 reduction and carbon monoxide (CO)–CO coupling activation energy barriers; as a result, onset of ethylene evolution at −0.165 volts versus an RHE in 10 molar potassium hydroxide occurs almost simultaneously with CO production. Operational stability was enhanced via the introduction of a polymer-based gas diffusion layer that sandwiches the reaction interface between separate hydrophobic and conductive supports, providing constant ethylene selectivity for an initial 150 operating hours.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
16 Jan 2019-Joule
TL;DR: In this paper, a facile synthesis of earth-abundant Ni single-atom catalysts on commercial carbon black was further employed in a gas-phase electrocatalytic reactor under ambient conditions.

575 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A critical appraisal of reduction of CO2 to C2 products focusing on the connection between the fundamentals of reaction and efficient electrocatalysts is presented and some typical examples illustrating the benefit of merging theoretical calculations, surface characterization, and electrochemical measurements are provided.
Abstract: Electrochemical reduction of CO2 to high-energy-density oxygenates and hydrocarbons beyond CO is important for long-term and large-scale renewable energy storage. However, the key step of the C–C bond formation needed for the generation of C2 products induces an additional barrier on the reaction. This inevitably creates larger overpotentials and greater variety of products as compared to the conversion of CO2 to C1 products. Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the catalytic mechanism is required for advancing the design of efficient electrocatalysts to control the reaction pathway to the desired products. Herein, we present a critical appraisal of reduction of CO2 to C2 products focusing on the connection between the fundamentals of reaction and efficient electrocatalysts. An in-depth discussion of the mechanistic aspects of various C2 reaction pathways on copper-based catalysts is presented together with consideration of practical factors under electrocatalytic operating conditions. By providing som...

565 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
23 Jan 2020-Nature
TL;DR: Electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 over copper can be made highly selective by ‘tuning’ the copper surface with adsorbed organic molecules to stabilize intermediates for carbon-based fuels such as ethylene.
Abstract: The electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide, powered by renewable electricity, to produce valuable fuels and feedstocks provides a sustainable and carbon-neutral approach to the storage of energy produced by intermittent renewable sources1. However, the highly selective generation of economically desirable products such as ethylene from the carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) remains a challenge2. Tuning the stabilities of intermediates to favour a desired reaction pathway can improve selectivity3–5, and this has recently been explored for the reaction on copper by controlling morphology6, grain boundaries7, facets8, oxidation state9 and dopants10. Unfortunately, the Faradaic efficiency for ethylene is still low in neutral media (60 per cent at a partial current density of 7 milliamperes per square centimetre in the best catalyst reported so far9), resulting in a low energy efficiency. Here we present a molecular tuning strategy—the functionalization of the surface of electrocatalysts with organic molecules—that stabilizes intermediates for more selective CO2RR to ethylene. Using electrochemical, operando/in situ spectroscopic and computational studies, we investigate the influence of a library of molecules, derived by electro-dimerization of arylpyridiniums11, adsorbed on copper. We find that the adhered molecules improve the stabilization of an ‘atop-bound’ CO intermediate (that is, an intermediate bound to a single copper atom), thereby favouring further reduction to ethylene. As a result of this strategy, we report the CO2RR to ethylene with a Faradaic efficiency of 72 per cent at a partial current density of 230 milliamperes per square centimetre in a liquid-electrolyte flow cell in a neutral medium. We report stable ethylene electrosynthesis for 190 hours in a system based on a membrane-electrode assembly that provides a full-cell energy efficiency of 20 per cent. We anticipate that this may be generalized to enable molecular strategies to complement heterogeneous catalysts by stabilizing intermediates through local molecular tuning. Electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 over copper can be made highly selective by ‘tuning’ the copper surface with adsorbed organic molecules to stabilize intermediates for carbon-based fuels such as ethylene

519 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
11 Jun 2018
TL;DR: In this paper, a class of core-shell vacancy engineering catalysts that utilize sulfur atoms in the nanoparticle core and copper vacancies in the shell to achieve efficient electrochemical CO2 reduction to propanol and ethanol was proposed.
Abstract: Engineering copper-based catalysts that favour high-value alcohols is desired in view of the energy density, ready transport and established use of these liquid fuels. In the design of catalysts, much progress has been made to target the C–C coupling step; whereas comparatively little effort has been expended to target post-C–C coupling reaction intermediates. Here we report a class of core–shell vacancy engineering catalysts that utilize sulfur atoms in the nanoparticle core and copper vacancies in the shell to achieve efficient electrochemical CO2 reduction to propanol and ethanol. These catalysts shift selectivity away from the competing ethylene reaction and towards liquid alcohols. We increase the alcohol-to-ethylene ratio more than sixfold compared with bare-copper nanoparticles, highlighting an alternative approach to electroproduce alcohols instead of alkenes. We achieve a C2+ alcohol production rate of 126 ± 5 mA cm−2 with a selectivity of 32 ± 1% Faradaic efficiency. The conversion of carbon dioxide into multi-carbon alcohols would enable the synthesis of sustainable liquid fuels with high energy densities. Now, vacancy-engineered core–shell copper-based catalysts are able to shift the selectivity of electrochemical CO2 reduction into alcohols instead of alkenes, as obtained with bare-copper catalysts.

458 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This work critically summarized and comprehensively reviewed the characteristics and performance of both liquid and solid CO2 adsorbents with possible schemes for the improvement of their CO2 capture ability and advances in CO2 utilization.
Abstract: Dramatically increased CO2 concentration from several point sources is perceived to cause severe greenhouse effect towards the serious ongoing global warming with associated climate destabilization, inducing undesirable natural calamities, melting of glaciers, and extreme weather patterns. CO2 capture and utilization (CCU) has received tremendous attention due to its significant role in intensifying global warming. Considering the lack of a timely review on the state-of-the-art progress of promising CCU techniques, developing an appropriate and prompt summary of such advanced techniques with a comprehensive understanding is necessary. Thus, it is imperative to provide a timely review, given the fast growth of sophisticated CO2 capture and utilization materials and their implementation. In this work, we critically summarized and comprehensively reviewed the characteristics and performance of both liquid and solid CO2 adsorbents with possible schemes for the improvement of their CO2 capture ability and advances in CO2 utilization. Their industrial applications in pre- and post-combustion CO2 capture as well as utilization were systematically discussed and compared. With our great effort, this review would be of significant importance for academic researchers for obtaining an overall understanding of the current developments and future trends of CCU. This work is bound to benefit researchers in fields relating to CCU and facilitate the progress of significant breakthroughs in both fundamental research and commercial applications to deliver perspective views for future scientific and industrial advances in CCU.

453 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A simple derivation of a simple GGA is presented, in which all parameters (other than those in LSD) are fundamental constants, and only general features of the detailed construction underlying the Perdew-Wang 1991 (PW91) GGA are invoked.
Abstract: Generalized gradient approximations (GGA’s) for the exchange-correlation energy improve upon the local spin density (LSD) description of atoms, molecules, and solids. We present a simple derivation of a simple GGA, in which all parameters (other than those in LSD) are fundamental constants. Only general features of the detailed construction underlying the Perdew-Wang 1991 (PW91) GGA are invoked. Improvements over PW91 include an accurate description of the linear response of the uniform electron gas, correct behavior under uniform scaling, and a smoother potential. [S0031-9007(96)01479-2] PACS numbers: 71.15.Mb, 71.45.Gm Kohn-Sham density functional theory [1,2] is widely used for self-consistent-field electronic structure calculations of the ground-state properties of atoms, molecules, and solids. In this theory, only the exchange-correlation energy EXC › EX 1 EC as a functional of the electron spin densities n"srd and n#srd must be approximated. The most popular functionals have a form appropriate for slowly varying densities: the local spin density (LSD) approximation Z d 3 rn e unif

146,533 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An efficient scheme for calculating the Kohn-Sham ground state of metallic systems using pseudopotentials and a plane-wave basis set is presented and the application of Pulay's DIIS method to the iterative diagonalization of large matrices will be discussed.
Abstract: We present an efficient scheme for calculating the Kohn-Sham ground state of metallic systems using pseudopotentials and a plane-wave basis set. In the first part the application of Pulay's DIIS method (direct inversion in the iterative subspace) to the iterative diagonalization of large matrices will be discussed. Our approach is stable, reliable, and minimizes the number of order ${\mathit{N}}_{\mathrm{atoms}}^{3}$ operations. In the second part, we will discuss an efficient mixing scheme also based on Pulay's scheme. A special ``metric'' and a special ``preconditioning'' optimized for a plane-wave basis set will be introduced. Scaling of the method will be discussed in detail for non-self-consistent and self-consistent calculations. It will be shown that the number of iterations required to obtain a specific precision is almost independent of the system size. Altogether an order ${\mathit{N}}_{\mathrm{atoms}}^{2}$ scaling is found for systems containing up to 1000 electrons. If we take into account that the number of k points can be decreased linearly with the system size, the overall scaling can approach ${\mathit{N}}_{\mathrm{atoms}}$. We have implemented these algorithms within a powerful package called VASP (Vienna ab initio simulation package). The program and the techniques have been used successfully for a large number of different systems (liquid and amorphous semiconductors, liquid simple and transition metals, metallic and semiconducting surfaces, phonons in simple metals, transition metals, and semiconductors) and turned out to be very reliable. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.

81,985 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the formal relationship between US Vanderbilt-type pseudopotentials and Blochl's projector augmented wave (PAW) method is derived and the Hamilton operator, the forces, and the stress tensor are derived for this modified PAW functional.
Abstract: The formal relationship between ultrasoft (US) Vanderbilt-type pseudopotentials and Bl\"ochl's projector augmented wave (PAW) method is derived. It is shown that the total energy functional for US pseudopotentials can be obtained by linearization of two terms in a slightly modified PAW total energy functional. The Hamilton operator, the forces, and the stress tensor are derived for this modified PAW functional. A simple way to implement the PAW method in existing plane-wave codes supporting US pseudopotentials is pointed out. In addition, critical tests are presented to compare the accuracy and efficiency of the PAW and the US pseudopotential method with relaxed core all electron methods. These tests include small molecules $({\mathrm{H}}_{2}{,\mathrm{}\mathrm{H}}_{2}{\mathrm{O},\mathrm{}\mathrm{Li}}_{2}{,\mathrm{}\mathrm{N}}_{2}{,\mathrm{}\mathrm{F}}_{2}{,\mathrm{}\mathrm{BF}}_{3}{,\mathrm{}\mathrm{SiF}}_{4})$ and several bulk systems (diamond, Si, V, Li, Ca, ${\mathrm{CaF}}_{2},$ Fe, Co, Ni). Particular attention is paid to the bulk properties and magnetic energies of Fe, Co, and Ni.

57,691 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An improved way of estimating the local tangent in the nudged elastic band method for finding minimum energy paths is presented, and examples given where a complementary method, the dimer method, is used to efficiently converge to the saddle point.
Abstract: An improved way of estimating the local tangent in the nudged elastic band method for finding minimum energy paths is presented. In systems where the force along the minimum energy path is large compared to the restoring force perpendicular to the path and when many images of the system are included in the elastic band, kinks can develop and prevent the band from converging to the minimum energy path. We show how the kinks arise and present an improved way of estimating the local tangent which solves the problem. The task of finding an accurate energy and configuration for the saddle point is also discussed and examples given where a complementary method, the dimer method, is used to efficiently converge to the saddle point. Both methods only require the first derivative of the energy and can, therefore, easily be applied in plane wave based density-functional theory calculations. Examples are given from studies of the exchange diffusion mechanism in a Si crystal, Al addimer formation on the Al(100) surfa...

6,825 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper describes how accurate off-lattice ascent paths can be represented with respect to the grid points, and maintains the efficient linear scaling of an earlier version of the algorithm, and eliminates a tendency for the Bader surfaces to be aligned along the grid directions.
Abstract: A computational method for partitioning a charge density grid into Bader volumes is presented which is efficient, robust, and scales linearly with the number of grid points. The partitioning algorithm follows the steepest ascent paths along the charge density gradient from grid point to grid point until a charge density maximum is reached. In this paper, we describe how accurate off-lattice ascent paths can be represented with respect to the grid points. This improvement maintains the efficient linear scaling of an earlier version of the algorithm, and eliminates a tendency for the Bader surfaces to be aligned along the grid directions. As the algorithm assigns grid points to charge density maxima, subsequent paths are terminated when they reach previously assigned grid points. It is this grid-based approach which gives the algorithm its efficiency, and allows for the analysis of the large grids generated from plane-wave-based density functional theory calculations.

5,417 citations