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Enhanced CO2 electroreduction on armchair graphene nanoribbons edge-decorated with copper

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Abstract

Inspired by the recent experimental synthesis of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) and theoretical research on their edge-decoration, we comprehensively studied the electrocatalytic performance of GNRs edge-decorated with Cu for CO2 reduction. Compared to zigzag GNRs, the Cu-terminated armchair GNRs with a width of n = 3p + 2 were more efficient catalysts for producing methanol from CO2 with a free energy barrier of less than 0.5 eV, offering the advantages of a lower overpotential and higher selectivity than bulk Cu and other graphene-supported Cu structures. On the other hand, the competing hydrogen evolution reaction could be effectively suppressed by Cu-terminated armchair GNRs. Hence, the edge-decorated GNRs offer great flexibility for tuning the catalytic efficiency and selectivity for CO2 electroreduction.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by grants from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) program and from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11274023 and 21573008), and from the National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2012CB921404).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Singapore-Peking University Research Centre, Campus for Research Excellence & Technological Enterprise (CREATE), Singapore, 138602, Singapore

    Guizhi Zhu, Yawei Li, Haiyan Zhu, Haibin Su, Siew Hwa Chan & Qiang Sun

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Guizhi Zhu, Yawei Li & Qiang Sun

  3. Institute of Modern Physics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Theoretical Physics Frontiers, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, China

    Haiyan Zhu

  4. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

    Haibin Su

  5. School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 639798, Singapore

    Siew Hwa Chan

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  1. Guizhi Zhu
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Correspondence to Qiang Sun.

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Zhu, G., Li, Y., Zhu, H. et al. Enhanced CO2 electroreduction on armchair graphene nanoribbons edge-decorated with copper. Nano Res. 10, 1641–1650 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1362-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-016-1362-9

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