Unique star decahedron Cu nanocatalyst with highly active hydrocarbon production

Abstract

Electrochem. carbon dioxide redn. reaction (CO₂RR) to renewable fuels and feed stocks provides a viable approach to recycle CO₂ gas into energy sources, which requires development of highly active catalysts at low overpotential. Herein, we synthesize a high-yield star decahedron Cu nanoparticle (SD-Cu NPs) electrocatalysts. SD-Cu NPs display unique twin boundaries (TBs) and multiple stacking faults, leading to low overpotentials for methane (CH₄) and high efficiency for ethylene (C₂H₄) prodn. To be specific, SD-Cu NPs show 0.149 V lower an onset potential for CH4 prodn. than com. Cu NPs, and 52.43%±6.87 faradaic efficiency (FE) for C₂H₄ prodn. at -0.993±0.0129 V. In addn., a DFT based fundamental study of why the sites on the SD-Cu NPs lead to understanding about such dramatically improved performance.