Bismuth-induced oxygen vacancies on CuO/Cu2O nanospheres for selective and active electrchemical CO2 reduction to C2H4

The construction of oxygen vacancies and heterostructures has been demonstrated to be a viable approach to improve the performance of Cu-based electrocatalysts in the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR). However, integrating these two benefits into a metal oxide-based electrocatalyst to realize synergistic effects presents a significant technological challenge. In this investigation, a novel self-sacrificing template in conjunction with a Bi doping strategy was adopted to optimize the electronic configuration of the Cu-based electrocatalyst. The experimental findings indicated that the optimal catalyst Bi-CuxO-3 possess rich oxygen vacancy and CuO/Cu2O heterostructure have been obtained. Benefit from these structure characters, the adsorptive and activate ability of CO2 on the catalyst surface have been enhanced. Additionally, the DFT calculations provide further confirmation of the promotive beneficial of oxygen vacancies and framework Bi. As anticipated, in the electrocatalytic CO2RR test, Bi-CuxO-3 present the highest faraday efficiency with 50.95 % for ethylene generation and greatly stability with 60 h. This work provides some new insights into modified Cu-based electrocatalyst to improve its CO2RR activity.