Acid-Stable Cu Cluster Precatalysts Enable High Energy and Carbon Efficiency in CO2 Electroreduction.

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 in acidic media offers the advantage of high carbon utilization, but achieving high selectivity to C2+ products at a low overpotential remains a challenge. We identified the chemical instability of oxide-derived Cu catalysts as a reason that advances in neutral/alkaline electrolysis do not translate to acidic conditions. In acid, Cu ions leach from Cu oxides, leading to the deactivation of the C2+-active sites of Cu nanoparticles. This prompted us to design acid-stable Cu cluster precatalysts that are reduced in situ to active Cu nanoparticles in strong acid. Operando Raman and X-ray spectroscopy indicated that the bonding between the Cu cluster precatalyst ligand and in situ formed Cu nanoparticles preserves a high density of undercoordinated Cu sites, resulting in a C2H4 Faradaic efficiency of 62% at a low overpotential. The result is a 1.4-fold increase in energy efficiency compared with previous acidic CO2-to-C2+ electrocatalytic systems.

Reactive capture of CO2 via amino acid.

Reactive capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) offers an electrified pathway to produce renewable carbon monoxide (CO), which can then be upgraded into long-chain hydrocarbons and fuels. Previous reactive capture systems relied on hydroxide- or amine-based capture solutions. However, selectivity for CO remains low (<50%) for hydroxide-based systems and conventional amines are prone to oxygen (O2) degradation. Here, we develop a reactive capture strategy using potassium glycinate (K-GLY), an amino acid salt (AAS) capture solution applicable to O2-rich CO2-lean conditions. By employing a single-atom catalyst, engineering the capture solution, and elevating the operating temperature and pressure, we increase the availability of dissolved in-situ CO2 and achieve CO production with 64% Faradaic efficiency (FE) at 50 mA cm-2. We report a measured CO energy efficiency (EE) of 31% and an energy intensity of 40 GJ tCO-1, exceeding the best hydroxide- and amine-based reactive capture reports. The feasibility of the full reactive capture process is demonstrated with both simulated flue gas and direct air input.

Selective Electrified Propylene-to-Propylene Glycol Oxidation on Activated Rh-Doped Pd.

Renewable-energy-powered electrosynthesis has the potential to contribute to decarbonizing the production of propylene glycol, a chemical that is used currently in the manufacture of polyesters and antifreeze and has a high carbon intensity. Unfortunately, to date, the electrooxidation of propylene under ambient conditions has suffered from a wide product distribution, leading to a low faradic efficiency toward the desired propylene glycol. We undertook mechanistic investigations and found that the reconstruction of Pd to PdO occurs, followed by hydroxide formation under anodic bias. The formation of this metastable hydroxide layer arrests the progressive dissolution of Pd in a locally acidic environment, increases the activity, and steers the reaction pathway toward propylene glycol. Rh-doped Pd further improves propylene glycol selectivity. Density functional theory (DFT) suggests that the Rh dopant lowers the energy associated with the production of the final intermediate in propylene glycol formation and renders the desorption step spontaneous, a concept consistent with experimental studies. We report a 75% faradic efficiency toward propylene glycol maintained over 100 h of operation.

Site-selective protonation enables efficient carbon monoxide electroreduction to acetate.

Electrosynthesis of acetate from CO offers the prospect of a low-carbon-intensity route to this valuable chemical--but only once sufficient selectivity, reaction rate and stability are realized. It is a high priority to achieve the protonation of the relevant intermediates in a controlled fashion, and to achieve this while suppressing the competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and while steering multicarbon (C2+) products to a single valuable product--an example of which is acetate. Here we report interface engineering to achieve solid/liquid/gas triple-phase interface regulation, and we find that it leads to site-selective protonation of intermediates and the preferential stabilization of the ketene intermediates: this, we find, leads to improved selectivity and energy efficiency toward acetate. Once we further tune the catalyst composition and also optimize for interfacial water management, we achieve a cadmium-copper catalyst that shows an acetate Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 75% with ultralow HER (<0.2% H2 FE) at 150 mA cm-2. We develop a high-pressure membrane electrode assembly system to increase CO coverage by controlling gas reactant distribution and achieve 86% acetate FE simultaneous with an acetate full-cell energy efficiency (EE) of 32%, the highest energy efficiency reported in direct acetate electrosynthesis.

Unusual Sabatier principle on high entropy alloy catalysts for hydrogen evolution reactions.

The Sabatier principle is widely explored in heterogeneous catalysis, graphically depicted in volcano plots. The most desirable activity is located at the peak of the volcano, and further advances in activity past this optimum are possible by designing a catalyst that circumvents the limitation entailed by the Sabatier principle. Herein, by density functional theory calculations, we discovered an unusual Sabatier principle on high entropy alloy (HEA) surface, distinguishing the "just right" (ΔGH* = 0 eV) in the Sabatier principle of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). A new descriptor was proposed to design HEA catalysts for HER. As a proof-of-concept, the synthesized PtFeCoNiCu HEA catalyst endows a high catalytic performance for HER with an overpotential of 10.8 mV at -10 mA cm-2 and 4.6 times higher intrinsic activity over the state-of-the-art Pt/C. Moreover, the unusual Sabatier principle on HEA catalysts can be extended to other catalytic reactions.

Efficient multicarbon formation in acidic CO2 reduction via tandem electrocatalysis.

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 in acidic conditions enables high single-pass carbon efficiency. However, the competing hydrogen evolution reaction reduces selectivity in the electrochemical reduction of CO2, a reaction in which the formation of CO, and its ensuing coupling, are each essential to achieving multicarbon (C2+) product formation. These two reactions rely on distinct catalyst properties that are difficult to achieve in a single catalyst. Here we report decoupling the CO2-to-C2+ reaction into two steps, CO2-to-CO and CO-to-C2+, by deploying two distinct catalyst layers operating in tandem to achieve the desired transformation. The first catalyst, atomically dispersed cobalt phthalocyanine, reduces CO2 to CO with high selectivity. This process increases local CO availability to enhance the C-C coupling step implemented on the second catalyst layer, which is a Cu nanocatalyst with a Cu-ionomer interface. The optimized tandem electrodes achieve 61% C2H4 Faradaic efficiency and 82% C2+ Faradaic efficiency at 800 mA cm-2 at 25 °C. When optimized for single-pass utilization, the system reaches a single-pass carbon efficiency of 90 ± 3%, simultaneous with 55 ± 3% C2H4 Faradaic efficiency and a total C2+ Faradaic efficiency of 76 ± 2%, at 800 mA cm-2 with a CO2 flow rate of 2 ml min-1.

Single-site decorated copper enables energy- and carbon-efficient CO2 methanation in acidic conditions.

Renewable CH4 produced from electrocatalytic CO2 reduction is viewed as a sustainable and versatile energy carrier, compatible with existing infrastructure. However, conventional alkaline and neutral CO2-to-CH4 systems suffer CO2 loss to carbonates, and recovering the lost CO2 requires input energy exceeding the heating value of the produced CH4. Here we pursue CH4-selective electrocatalysis in acidic conditions via a coordination method, stabilizing free Cu ions by bonding Cu with multidentate donor sites. We find that hexadentate donor sites in ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid enable the chelation of Cu ions, regulating Cu cluster size and forming Cu-N/O single sites that achieve high CH4 selectivity in acidic conditions. We report a CH4 Faradaic efficiency of 71% (at 100 mA cm-2) with <3% loss in total input CO2 that results in an overall energy intensity (254 GJ/tonne CH4), half that of existing electroproduction routes.

Doping Shortens the Metal/Metal Distance and Promotes OH Coverage in Non-Noble Acidic Oxygen Evolution Reaction Catalysts.

Acidic water electrolysis enables the production of hydrogen for use as a chemical and as a fuel. The acidic environment hinders water electrolysis on non-noble catalysts, a result of the sluggish kinetics associated with the adsorbate evolution mechanism, reliant as it is on four concerted proton-electron transfer steps. Enabling a faster mechanism with non-noble catalysts will help to further advance acidic water electrolysis. Here, we report evidence that doping Ba cations into a Co3O4 framework to form Co3-xBaxO4 promotes the oxide path mechanism and simultaneously improves activity in acidic electrolytes. Co3-xBaxO4 catalysts reported herein exhibit an overpotential of 278 mV at 10 mA/cm2 in 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte and are stable over 110 h of continuous water oxidation operation. We find that the incorporation of Ba cations shortens the Co-Co distance and promotes OH adsorption, findings we link to improved water oxidation in acidic electrolyte.

Electrified hydrocarbon-to-oxygenates coupled to hydrogen evolution for efficient greenhouse gas mitigation.

Chemicals manufacture is among the top greenhouse gas contributors. More than half of the associated emissions are attributable to the sum of ammonia plus oxygenates such as methanol, ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. Here we explore the impact of electrolyzer systems that couple electrically-powered anodic hydrocarbon-to-oxygenate conversion with cathodic H2 evolution reaction from water. We find that, once anodic hydrocarbon-to-oxygenate conversion is developed with high selectivities, greenhouse gas emissions associated with fossil-based NH3 and oxygenates manufacture can be reduced by up to 88%. We report that low-carbon electricity is not mandatory to enable a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions: global chemical industry emissions can be reduced by up to 39% even with electricity having the carbon footprint per MWh available in the United States or China today. We conclude with considerations and recommendations for researchers who wish to embark on this research direction.

Strong-Proton-Adsorption Co-Based Electrocatalysts Achieve Active and Stable Neutral Seawater Splitting.

Direct electrolysis of pH-neutral seawater to generate hydrogen is an attractive approach for storing renewable energy. However, due to the anodic competition between the chlorine evolution and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), direct seawater splitting suffers from a low current density and limited operating stability. Exploration of catalysts enabling an OER overpotential below the hypochlorite formation overpotential (≈490 mV) is critical to suppress the chloride evolution and facilitate seawater splitting. Here, a proton-adsorption-promoting strategy to increase the OER rate is reported, resulting in a promoted and more stable neutral seawater splitting. The best catalysts herein are strong-proton-adsorption (SPA) materials such as palladium-doped cobalt oxide (Co3- x Pdx O4 ) catalysts. These achieve an OER overpotential of 370 mV at 10 mA cm-2 in pH-neutral simulated seawater, outperforming Co3 O4 by a margin of 70 mV. Co3- x Pdx O4 catalysts provide stable catalytic performance for 450 h at 200 mA cm-2 and 20 h at 1 A cm-2 in neutral seawater. Experimental studies and theoretical calculations suggest that the incorporation of SPA cations accelerates the rate-determining water dissociation step in neutral OER pathway, and control studies rule out the provision of additional OER sites as a main factor herein.

Bipolar membrane electrolyzers enable high single-pass CO2 electroreduction to multicarbon products.

In alkaline and neutral MEA CO2 electrolyzers, CO2 rapidly converts to (bi)carbonate, imposing a significant energy penalty arising from separating CO2 from the anode gas outlets. Here we report a CO2 electrolyzer uses a bipolar membrane (BPM) to convert (bi)carbonate back to CO2, preventing crossover; and that surpasses the single-pass utilization (SPU) limit (25% for multi-carbon products, C2+) suffered by previous neutral-media electrolyzers. We employ a stationary unbuffered catholyte layer between BPM and cathode to promote C2+ products while ensuring that (bi)carbonate is converted back, in situ, to CO2 near the cathode. We develop a model that enables the design of the catholyte layer, finding that limiting the diffusion path length of reverted CO2 to ~10 µm balances the CO2 diffusion flux with the regeneration rate. We report a single-pass CO2 utilization of 78%, which lowers the energy associated with downstream separation of CO2 by 10× compared with past systems.

Accelerating CO2 Electroreduction to Multicarbon Products via Synergistic Electric-Thermal Field on Copper Nanoneedles.

Electrochemical CO2 reduction is a promising way to mitigate CO2 emissions and close the anthropogenic carbon cycle. Among products from CO2RR, multicarbon chemicals, such as ethylene and ethanol with high energy density, are more valuable. However, the selectivity and reaction rate of C2 production are unsatisfactory due to the sluggish thermodynamics and kinetics of C-C coupling. The electric field and thermal field have been studied and utilized to promote catalytic reactions, as they can regulate the thermodynamic and kinetic barriers of reactions. Either raising the potential or heating the electrolyte can enhance C-C coupling, but these come at the cost of increasing side reactions, such as the hydrogen evolution reaction. Here, we present a generic strategy to enhance the local electric field and temperature simultaneously and dramatically improve the electric-thermal synergy desired in electrocatalysis. A conformal coating of ∼5 nm of polytetrafluoroethylene significantly improves the catalytic ability of copper nanoneedles (∼7-fold electric field and ∼40 K temperature enhancement at the tips compared with bare copper nanoneedles experimentally), resulting in an improved C2 Faradaic efficiency of over 86% at a partial current density of more than 250 mA cm-2 and a record-high C2 turnover frequency of 11.5 ± 0.3 s-1 Cu site-1. Combined with its low cost and scalability, the electric-thermal strategy for a state-of-the-art catalyst not only offers new insight into improving activity and selectivity of value-added C2 products as we demonstrated but also inspires advances in efficiency and/or selectivity of other valuable electro-/photocatalysis such as hydrogen evolution, nitrogen reduction, and hydrogen peroxide electrosynthesis.

Wide-Bandgap Perovskite Quantum Dots in Perovskite Matrix for Sky-Blue Light-Emitting Diodes.

The epitaxial growth of a perovskite matrix on quantum dots (QDs) has enabled the emergence of efficient red light-emitting diodes (LEDs) because it unites efficient charge transport with strong surface passivation. However, the synthesis of wide-band gap (Eg) QD-in-matrix heterostructures has so far remained elusive in the case of sky-blue LEDs. Here, we developed CsPbBr3 QD-in-perovskite matrix solids that enable high luminescent efficiency and spectral stability with an optical Eg of over 2.6 eV. We screened alloy candidates that modulate the perovskite Eg and allow heteroepitaxy, seeking to implement lattice-matched type-I band alignment. Specifically, we introduced a CsPb1-xSrxBr3 matrix, in which alloying with Sr2+ increased the Eg of the perovskite and minimized lattice mismatch. We then developed an approach to passivation that would overcome the hygroscopic nature of Sr2+. We found that bis(4-fluorophenyl)phenylphosphine oxide strongly coordinates with Sr2+ and provides steric hindrance to block H2O, a finding obtained by combining molecular dynamics simulations with experimental results. The resulting QD-in-matrix solids exhibit enhanced air- and photo-stability with efficient charge transport from the matrix to the QDs. LEDs made from this material exhibit an external quantum efficiency of 13.8% and a brightness exceeding 6000 cd m-2.

CO2 electrolysis to multicarbon products in strong acid.

Carbon dioxide electroreduction (CO2R) is being actively studied as a promising route to convert carbon emissions to valuable chemicals and fuels. However, the fraction of input CO2 that is productively reduced has typically been very low, <2% for multicarbon products; the balance reacts with hydroxide to form carbonate in both alkaline and neutral reactors. Acidic electrolytes would overcome this limitation, but hydrogen evolution has hitherto dominated under those conditions. We report that concentrating potassium cations in the vicinity of electrochemically active sites accelerates CO2 activation to enable efficient CO2R in acid. We achieve CO2R on copper at pH <1 with a single-pass CO2 utilization of 77%, including a conversion efficiency of 50% toward multicarbon products (ethylene, ethanol, and 1-propanol) at a current density of 1.2 amperes per square centimeter and a full-cell voltage of 4.2 volts.

Low coordination number copper catalysts for electrochemical CO2 methanation in a membrane electrode assembly.

The electrochemical conversion of CO2 to methane provides a means to store intermittent renewable electricity in the form of a carbon-neutral hydrocarbon fuel that benefits from an established global distribution network. The stability and selectivity of reported approaches reside below technoeconomic-related requirements. Membrane electrode assembly-based reactors offer a known path to stability; however, highly alkaline conditions on the cathode favour C-C coupling and multi-carbon products. In computational studies herein, we find that copper in a low coordination number favours methane even under highly alkaline conditions. Experimentally, we develop a carbon nanoparticle moderator strategy that confines a copper-complex catalyst when employed in a membrane electrode assembly. In-situ XAS measurements confirm that increased carbon nanoparticle loadings can reduce the metallic copper coordination number. At a copper coordination number of 4.2 we demonstrate a CO2-to-methane selectivity of 62%, a methane partial current density of 136 mA cm-2, and > 110 hours of stable operation.

Promoting CO2 methanation via ligand-stabilized metal oxide clusters as hydrogen-donating motifs.

Electroreduction uses renewable energy to upgrade carbon dioxide to value-added chemicals and fuels. Renewable methane synthesized using such a route stands to be readily deployed using existing infrastructure for the distribution and utilization of natural gas. Here we design a suite of ligand-stabilized metal oxide clusters and find that these modulate carbon dioxide reduction pathways on a copper catalyst, enabling thereby a record activity for methane electroproduction. Density functional theory calculations show adsorbed hydrogen donation from clusters to copper active sites for the *CO hydrogenation pathway towards *CHO. We promote this effect via control over cluster size and composition and demonstrate the effect on metal oxides including cobalt(II), molybdenum(VI), tungsten(VI), nickel(II) and palladium(II) oxides. We report a carbon dioxide-to-methane faradaic efficiency of 60% at a partial current density to methane of 135 milliampere per square centimetre. We showcase operation over 18 h that retains a faradaic efficiency exceeding 55%.

Solar-driven, highly sustained splitting of seawater into hydrogen and oxygen fuels.

Electrolysis of water to generate hydrogen fuel is an attractive renewable energy storage technology. However, grid-scale freshwater electrolysis would put a heavy strain on vital water resources. Developing cheap electrocatalysts and electrodes that can sustain seawater splitting without chloride corrosion could address the water scarcity issue. Here we present a multilayer anode consisting of a nickel-iron hydroxide (NiFe) electrocatalyst layer uniformly coated on a nickel sulfide (NiSx) layer formed on porous Ni foam (NiFe/NiSx-Ni), affording superior catalytic activity and corrosion resistance in solar-driven alkaline seawater electrolysis operating at industrially required current densities (0.4 to 1 A/cm2) over 1,000 h. A continuous, highly oxygen evolution reaction-active NiFe electrocatalyst layer drawing anodic currents toward water oxidation and an in situ-generated polyatomic sulfate and carbonate-rich passivating layers formed in the anode are responsible for chloride repelling and superior corrosion resistance of the salty-water-splitting anode.