Effect of electronic structure on electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction for Cu-based alloy catalysts

Abstract

Electronic structure engineering of catalysts for electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction is essential for increasing catalyst efficiency. d-band center is a factor representing the electronic structure of the catalyst, and making alloy is a useful method for manipulating the d-band center. We confirmed the effect of the d-band center on the product by controlling the electrolysis environment other than the electronic structure. CO binding energy in carbon dioxide reduction reaction on the catalyst surface tended to increase linearly as d-band center gets far from fermi energy level. Products beyond CO with two or more carbons shows volcano plot along d-band center which means following of Sabatier principle regardless of alloy type. Accordingly, we revealed that d-band center can act as useful descriptor for explaining electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction through an experimental way.