CuO/ZnO Composite Electrocatalyst: Preparation and Reduction of CO2 to Syngas

doi:10.15541/jim20210092

Abstract

Abstract:

The reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to syngas (a mixture of CO and H₂) can not only realize the carbon cycle and decrease the greenhouse effect but also alleviate the energy crisis. Design of catalyst is the key to realize CO₂ resource utilization. Herein, CuO and CuO/ZnO composite were prepared by metal ion co-precipitation method, and their performance of electrochemical CO₂ reduction to syngas under different potentials was investigated by adjusting the catalyst components. The results show that the introduction of zinc (Zn) species can decrease the adsorption intensity of intermediate CO₂^•- on the catalyst, which leads to the decrease of Faraday efficiency (FE) of CO and the increase of FE of H₂, thus achieving controllable regulation of CO/H₂ in the range of 1/1-1/4 under different applied electrochemical potential. In particular, the total FE of syngas CO/H₂ is up to 84% when the ratio of Cu to Zn in the precursor solution is 1 : 2.

Key words: CO₂ reduction, syngas, CuO/ZnO, intermediate CO₂^•-

CLC Number:

O611

ZHANG Qingming, ZHU Min, ZHOU Xiaoxia. CuO/ZnO Composite Electrocatalyst: Preparation and Reduction of CO₂ to Syngas[J]. Journal of Inorganic Materials, 2021, 36(11): 1145-1153.

Figures/Tables 13

Fig. 1 Schematic representation of the fabrication of CuO and CuO/ZnO catalyst and CO2 reduction process

Fig. 2 (a) Physical picture and (b) simplified model diagram for electrolytic cell of electrochemical CO2 reduction

Fig. 3 TEM images of catalysts (a, e) CuO, (b, f) CuO/ZnO-1, (c, g) CuO/ZnO-2 and (d, h) CuO/ZnO-3 (a-d) before and (e-h) after pyrolysis with elemental mapping images of CuO/ZnO-2 ((i) TEM, (j) Cu, (k) O and (l) Zn)

Fig. 4 (a) XRD patterns of CuO, CuO/ZnO-1, CuO/ZnO-2 and CuO/ZnO-3 electrocatalysts, (b) HRTEM image of CuO/ZnO-2, (c) total XPS survey of CuO/ZnO-2, (d) XPS Cu2p spectra of CuO/ZnO-2 and CuO, (e) XPS Zn2p3/2 spectrum of CuO/ZnO-2, and (f) XPS high resolution O1s spectra of CuO/ZnO-2 and CuO Colorful figures are available on website

Table 1 Analysis of the surface elemental content

Sample	Atomic percent/%
Sample	Cu	Zn	O	C
CuO	30.77	0	43.90	25.33
CuO/ZnO-1	30.91	6.73	46.34	16.02
CuO/ZnO-2	26.78	10.39	45.98	16.85
CuO/ZnO-3	19.95	12.95	42.22	25.44

Fig. 5 (a) Linear sweep voltammetry curves (LSVs) in N2/CO2-saturated KHCO3, (b) electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) of CuO and CuO/ZnO catalyst Colorful figures are available on website

Fig. 6 (a) Reduction activity of CO2 in CO2-saturated KOH solution (CO2-KOH) and N2-saturated KHCO3 solution (N2-KHCO3); Histograms for FE of the CO2 reduction products and the ratios of CO/H2 for (b) CuO, (c) CuO/ZnO-1, (d) CuO/ZnO-2 and (e) CuO/ ZnO-3; (f) Cyclic stability of CuO/ZnO-2 (black square and red dot indicate Faraday efficiencies of H2 and CO, respectively) Colorful figures are available on website

Fig. 7 Capacitive ΔJ/2 versus scan rate for (a) CuO, (b) CuO/ZnO-1, (c) CuO/ZnO-2, and (d) CuO/ZnO-3 Colorful figures are available on website

Fig. 8 (a) Oxidation LSVs of CuO, CuO/ZnO-1, CuO/ZnO-2 and CuO/ZnO-3 in 0.1 mol/L KOH; (b) Infrared spectra of the CuO/ZnO-2 catalyst before and after reaction; (c) Schematic formation process of CO Colorful figures are available on website

Fig. S1 (a) N2 adsorption/desorption curves and (b) pore size distributions of CuO, CuO/ZnO-1, CuO/ZnO-2 and CuO/ZnO-3 electrocatalysts

Fig. S2 i-t curves of (a) CuO, (b) CuO/ZnO-2, (c) CuO/ZnO-2 and (d) CuO/ZnO-3

Fig. S3 TEM image of catalyst CuO/ZnO-2 after cyclic stability test

Fig. S4 (a) CV curves for (a) CuO, (b) CuO/ZnO-1, (c) CuO/ZnO-2 and (d) CuO/ZnO-3 at different scan rates

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CuO/ZnO Composite Electrocatalyst: Preparation and Reduction of CO₂ to Syngas

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