Cooperative effects associated with high electrolyte concentrations in driving the conversion of CO₂ to C₂H₄ on copper
Shaoyang Lin, Yuval Fishler, Soonho Kwon, Annette E. Böhme, Weixuan Nie, Matthias H. Richter, Moon Young Yang, Jesse E. Matthews, Zachery W. B. Iton, Brian C. Lee, Thomas F. Jaramillo, Harry A. Atwater, William A. Goddard III, Wilson A. Smith, Kimberly A. See
Abstract
Compared to a conventional electrolyte concentration of 1 M HCOOK, the use of a highly concentrated 7.1 M HCOOK electrolyte increases the Faradaic efficiency (FE) ratio of C2H4/CO from 2.2 ± 0.3 to 18.3 ± 4.8 at −1.08 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) on a Cu gas-diffusion electrode. Based on electrochemical analysis and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulation, the identity and concentration of the cation and anion play more important roles in controlling the CO2R reaction pathway than the bulk CO2 solubility and the bulk pH of electrolytes. In situ attenuated reflectance surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (ATR-SEIRAS) suggests that, unlike 1 M HCOOK, the ∗CO-bridge-binding mode on Cu is dominant in 7.1 M HCOOK electrolyte, which potentially results in less CO release and higher yield of C2H4. This study demonstrates that although we can tailor the electrolyte composition to shift product selectivity, the factors that control the product selectivity are numerous and cannot be distilled down into one correlated property-reactivity relationship.
Group Members
Lin, S., Fishler, Y., Kwon, S., Böhme, A. E., Nie, W., Richter, M. H., Yang, M. Y., Matthews, J. E., Iton, Z. W. B., Lee, B. C., Jaramillo, T. F., Atwater, H. A., III, W. A. G., Smith, W. A., & See, K. A. (2025). Cooperative effects associated with high electrolyte concentrations in driving the conversion of CO₂ to C₂H₄ on copper. *Chem Catalysis*, *5*(6), 101338. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.checat.2025.101338