Bio-inspired hydrophobicity promotes CO2 reduction on a Cu surface - Laboratoire de Chimie des Processus Biologiques Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Nature Materials Année : 2019

Bio-inspired hydrophobicity promotes CO2 reduction on a Cu surface

Résumé

The aqueous electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 into alcohol and hydrocarbon fuels presents a sustainable route towards energy-rich chemical feedstocks. Cu is the only material able to catalyse the substantial formation of multicarbon products (C2/C3), but competing proton reduction to hydrogen is an ever-present drain on selectivity. Here, a superhydrophobic surface was generated by 1-octadecanethiol treatment of hierarchically structured Cu dendrites, inspired by the structure of gas-trapping cuticles on subaquatic spiders. The hydrophobic electrode attained a 56% Faradaic efficiency for ethylene and 17% for ethanol production at neutral pH, compared to 9% and 4% on a hydrophilic, wettable equivalent. These observations are assigned to trapped gases at the hydrophobic Cu surface, which increase the concentration of CO2 at the electrode–solution interface and consequently increase CO2 reduction selectivity. Hydrophobicity is thus proposed as a governing factor in CO2 reduction selectivity and can help explain trends seen on previously reported electrocatalysts.

Domaines

Matériaux Autre
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
accepted_manuscript.pdf (1.37 Mo) Télécharger le fichier
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
Loading...

Dates et versions

hal-02374030 , version 1 (21-11-2019)

Identifiants

Citer

David Wakerley, Sarah Lamaison, Francois Ozanam, Nicolas F Menguy, Dimitri Mercier, et al.. Bio-inspired hydrophobicity promotes CO2 reduction on a Cu surface. Nature Materials, 2019, 18 (11), pp.1222-1227. ⟨10.1038/s41563-019-0445-x⟩. ⟨hal-02374030⟩
277 Consultations
2052 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More