Chengqin Zou

A very basic pathway from CO 2 to ethylene Ethylene is an important commodity chemical for plastics. It is considered a tractable target for synthesizing renewably from carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). The challenge is that the performance of the copper electrocatalysts used for this conversion under the required basic reaction conditions suffers from the competing reaction of CO 2 with the base to form bicarbonate. Dinh et al. designed an electrode that tolerates the base by optimizing CO 2 diffusion to the catalytic sites (see the Perspective by Ager and Lapkin). This catalyst design delivers 70% efficiency for 150 hours. Science , this issue p. 783 ; see also p. 707

Abstract The electrochemical reduction of carbon monoxide is a promising approach for the renewable production of carbon-based fuels and chemicals. Copper shows activity toward multi-carbon products from CO reduction, with reaction selectivity favoring two-carbon products; however, efficient conversion of CO to higher carbon products such as n-propanol, a liquid fuel, has yet to be achieved. We hypothesize that copper adparticles, possessing a high density of under-coordinated atoms, could serve as preferential sites for n-propanol formation. Density functional theory calculations suggest that copper adparticles increase CO binding energy and stabilize two-carbon intermediates, facilitating coupling between adsorbed *CO and two-carbon intermediates to form three-carbon products. We form adparticle-covered catalysts in-situ by mediating catalyst growth with strong CO chemisorption. The new catalysts exhibit an n-propanol Faradaic efficiency of 23% from CO reduction at an n-propanol partial current density of 11 mA cm −2 .