Tuning CO2 Electroreduction of Cu Atoms on Triphenylene-Cored Graphdiyne

Cu catalysts are well known for their good performance in CO2 conversion and Cu atomic catalysts-supported porous two-dimensional (2D) materials are of special interest for CO2 electroreduction. In this work, we have explored the catalytic properties of Cu atomic catalysts supported on the newly synthesized triphenylene-graphdiyne [ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2019, 11, 2730] using DFT calculations. We have found that triphenylene-graphdiyne can fix the Cu atoms in triangular pores with diacetylenic linkages through pi -> d interactions. The single Cu atomic catalyst is catalytically active toward CO production through carboxyl mechanism with an overpotential of 0.26 V, which can be tuned to 0.16 and 0.08 V when functionalized with O and NH, respectively, through shifting the d-band center and adjusting the adsorption energies, leading to an enhanced energy efficiency.