Kim, Chansol Govindarajan, Nitish Hemenway, Sydney Park, Junho Zoraster, Anya Kong, Calton J. Prabhakar, Rajiv Ramanujam Varley, Joel B. Jung, Hee-Tae Hahn, Christopher Ager, Joel W. 2024-03-07T06:00:04Z 2024-03-07T06:00:04Z 2024-03-07 2024-03 2155-5435 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/149415 Electrochemical CO2 reduction on Cu is a promising approach to produce value-added chemicals using renewable feedstocks, yet various Cu preparations have led to differences in activity and selectivity toward single and multicarbon products. Here, we find, surprisingly, that the effective catalytic activity toward ethylene improves when there is a larger fraction of less active sites acting as reservoirs of *CO on the surface of Cu nanoparticle electrocatalysts. In an adaptation of chemical transient kinetics to electrocatalysis, we measure the dynamic response of a gas diffusion electrode (GDE) cell when the feed gas is abruptly switched between Ar (inert) and CO. When switching from Ar to CO, CO reduction (COR) begins promptly, but when switching from CO to Ar, COR can be maintained for several seconds (delay time) despite the absence of the CO reactant in the gas phase. A three-site microkinetic model captures the observed dynamic behavior and shows that Cu catalysts exhibiting delay times have a less active *CO reservoir that exhibits fast diffusion to active sites. The observed delay times and the estimated *CO reservoir sizes are affected by catalyst preparation, applied potential, and microenvironment (electrolyte cation identity, electrolyte pH, and CO partial pressure). Notably, we estimate that the *CO reservoir surface coverage can be as high as 88 +/- 7% on oxide-derived Cu (OD-Cu) at high overpotentials (-1.52 V vs SHE) and this increases in reservoir coverage coincide with increased turnover frequencies to ethylene. We also estimate that *CO can travel substantial distances (up to 10s of nm) prior to desorption or reaction. It appears that active C-C coupling sites by themselves do not control selectivity to C2+ products in electrochemical COR; the supply of CO to those sites is also a crucial factor. More generally, the overall activity of Cu electrocatalysts cannot be approximated from linear combinations of individual site activities. Future designs must consider the diversity of the catalyst network and account for intersite transportation pathways. English American Chemical Society Importance of Site Diversity and Connectivity in Electrochemical CO Reduction on Cu Article 10.1021/acscatal.3c05904 1 ACS Catalysis, v.14, no.5, pp.3128 - 3138 ACS Catalysis 14 5 3128 3138 Y scie scopus 001166524100001 2-s2.0-85185577230 Chemistry, Physical Chemistry Article CARBON-DIOXIDE PH-DEPENDENCE SURFACE COPPER SELECTIVITY THEORETICAL INSIGHTS FISCHER-TROPSCH ELECTRODES CATALYSTS MECHANISMS electrocatalysis chemical transient kinetics CO reduction microkinetic modeling catalyticmechanism