Synthesis of n‐Propanol from CO 2 Electroreduction on Bicontinuous Cu 2 O/Cu Nanodomains

作者：Renjie Zhang, Jianling Zhang, Sha Wang, Zhonghao Tan, Yisen Yang, Yi Song, Meiling Li, Yingzhe Zhao, Hao Wang, Buxing Han, Ran Duan · 发表于：Angewandte Chemie International Edition · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1002/anie.202405733 · 被引用次数：85 · 研究领域：CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts、Ionic liquids properties and applications、Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices

Abstract n‐propanol is an important pharmaceutical and pesticide intermediate. To produce n‐propanol by electrochemical reduction of CO 2 is a promising way, but is largely restricted by the very low selectivity and activity. How to promote the coupling of *C 1 and *C 2 intermediates to form the *C 3 intermediate for n‐propanol formation is challenging. Here, we propose the construction of bicontinuous structure of Cu 2 O/Cu electrocatalyst, which consists of ultra‐small Cu 2 O nanodomains, Cu nanodomains and large amounts of grain boundaries between Cu 2 O and Cu nanodomains. The n‐propanol current density is as high as 101.6 mA cm −2 at the applied potential of −1.1 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode in flow cell, with the Faradaic efficiency up to 12.1 %. Moreover, the catalyst keeps relatively stable during electrochemical CO 2 reduction process. Experimental studies and theoretical calculations reveal that the bicontinuous structure of Cu 2 O/Cu can facilitate the *CO formation, *CO‐*CO coupling and *CO‐*OCCO coupling for the final generation of n‐propanol.