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Size Control of Zn, N-doped Carbon Supported Copper Nanoparticles for Effective and Selective CO2 Electroreduction

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Abstract

Metal-support interaction has been used for selectivity control towards electro-chemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR). However, little progress has been made in adjusting the size of metal nanoparticles in supporting material and its effect on CO2RR. Herein, we prepared Cu metal nanoparticle catalysts ranging from a few nanometers to tens in crystallite size encapsulated in Zn, N-doped carbon supports and systematically study the size effect of the supported Cu metal catalysts on the reactivity of CO2RR. The catalyst containing 15.7-nm Cu crystallites has a higher Faradaic efficiency (nearly 80%) at − 0.7 V vs. RHE for CO, higher than 12.2-nm and 8.9-nm Cu catalysts. The result shows the dependence of CO2RR performance on Cu metal size, originating from the interaction between metal nanoparticles and their supporting matrix. This work may shed light on the promise of in situ construction method for supported metal catalyst and the investigation of metal-support interaction towards stable and selective electrochemical CO2 reduction.

Graphical Abstract

Cu metal nanoparticle catalysts ranging from a few to tens of nanometers in crystallite size were encapsulated in Zn, N-doped carbon supports, of which the size effect and metal-support interaction regulates the reactivity of CO2 electroreduction.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 22101132), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20210311), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 2021M691561, 2021T140319) Jiangsu Planned Projects for Postdoctoral Research Fund (2021K547C), CAS Key Laboratory of Nano-Bio Interface (21NBI02), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (NS2021037), and the Graduate Innovation Foundation of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (XCXJH20210606). The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) under its Career Development Fund (CDF 202D800033).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Hui Wang, Yanan Hao, Yajie Sun, Jiayue Pan, Feng Hu & Shengjie Peng

  2. CAS Key Laboratory of Nano-Bio Interface, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, China

    Feng Hu

  3. Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China

    Feng Hu

  4. Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), A*STAR, Singapore, 138634, Singapore

    Dan Kai

  5. Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE), A* STAR, Singapore, 138634, Singapore

    Dan Kai

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  1. Hui Wang
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Wang, H., Hao, Y., Sun, Y. et al. Size Control of Zn, N-doped Carbon Supported Copper Nanoparticles for Effective and Selective CO2 Electroreduction. Catal Lett 153, 2115–2124 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-022-04125-w

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