Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2025 Conference (MATSUSSpring25)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsusspring.2025.151
Publication date: 16th December 2024
Copper is unique among metals for its ability to reduce CO₂ to high-value products. Despite its often-considered noble nature, copper readily degrades during electrochemical CO₂ reduction (ECR). Through extensive experimental results, theoretical modeling, and literature data, the mechanisms behind copper degradation have been elucidated.1 A high-surface-area Cu catalyst exhibited significant changes in morphology and product selectivity over several hours under constant cathodic potentials relevant to ECR (-0.8 to -1.1 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode). The formation of copper complexes with CO₂ reduction intermediates was identified as the main driving force behind this instability.
Our findings additionally suggest that these dissolved Cu species preferentially redeposit on sites with lower intermediate coverage, such as adsorbed CO (*CO). A dynamic equilibrium between dissolution and selective redeposition of these copper complexes drives morphological restructuring, leading to catalyst deactivation. This results in a shift in selectivity away from ECR towards hydrogen production during prolonged operation. The interconnected changes in nanoparticle size, crystallographic facet orientation, *CO coverage, and the CObridge vs. COatop ratio were proposed as the key factors contributing to catalyst deactivation.
To confirm the universality of this effect across copper-based catalysts, experiments on electrodeposited copper nanoparticles and copper foil were conducted, yielding similar trends. Understanding these processes is essential for developing strategies to mitigate instability and improve catalyst stability, addressing one of the critical barriers to the industrialization of ECR.
The authors would like to acknowledge the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS) programs P2-0393.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.