Abstract
Despite of superior performance of the oxide-derived copper (OD-Cu) in
producing valuable hydrocarbons during CO2RR, its
fabrication process is still ambiguous and complicated. In this work, we
develop a simple microwave-assisted method to synthesize the
oxide-derived Cu nanosheet (OD-Cu NS) and reveal that the oxidation
state of Cu species is controlled by varying the Cu precursor amount.
Notably, the simultaneous formation of nano-sized Cu domains influence
the surface roughness of OD-Cu NS. The partially oxidized Cu surface
exhibits a superior faradaic efficiency (FE) of C2+
products up to 72%, along with a partial current density of 55 mA
cm−2 in a neutral KHCO3 solution. More
importantly, the as-obtained OD-Cu NS shows a synergetic effect on
dissociating of CO2 molecules by the strong binding
energy and promoting of C2+ compounds productivity by
the enlarged electrochemical surface area. This work provides a new
insight for designing efficient OD-Cu catalysts towards
CO2RR.