Benchmarking the Electrochemical CO₂ Reduction on Polycrystalline Copper Foils

Benchmarking the Electrochemical CO₂ Reduction on Polycrystalline Copper Foils: The Importance of Microstructure Versus Applied Potential

Asperti, S. (TU Delft Large Scale Energy Storage)
Hendrikx, R.W.A. (TU Delft Team Amarante Bottger)
Gonzalez Garcia, Y. (TU Delft Team Yaiza Gonzalez Garcia)
Kortlever, R. (TU Delft Large Scale Energy Storage)

2022

Copper is one of the most promising catalysts for the CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR) due to its unique capability of producing multicarbon products in appreciable quantities. Most of the CO₂RR research efforts have been directed towards the development of new electrocatalysts to either increase product selectivities or decrease overpotentials. In contrast, only a few studies have systematically tested or benchmarked CO₂RR performances of electrocatalysts. In this paper, for the first time, the performances of five different polycrystalline copper foils purchased from different suppliers are benchmarked for their CO₂RR performance. Their differences are characterized in terms of microstructural features and the effect that these microstructural properties have on the electrocatalytic behavior during potentiostatic CO₂RR experiments are evaluated. It is shown that the potential applied is the dominant factor controlling CO₂RR selectivities, leading to the conclusion that microstructural properties of polycrystalline copper electrodes have a negligible effect on the outcome of CO₂RR experiments.

applied potential
CORR
electrocatalysis
microstructure
polycrystalline copper

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e16fbaa6-2ecb-4394-b457-764ba4fccdef

https://doi.org/10.1002/cctc.202200540

1867-3880

ChemCatChem, 14 (21)

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2022 S. Asperti, R.W.A. Hendrikx, Y. Gonzalez Garcia, R. Kortlever