Electrochemical and FTIR spectroscopic study of CO2 reduction at a nanostructured Cu/reduced graphene oxide thin film

- Nanostructured Cu/rGO thin film was formed via a facile electrochemical method.
- The Cu/rGO nanocomposite is highly active for electrochemical reduction of CO2.
- Carbon monoxide and formate were identified as the main products.
- The Cu/rGO catalyst exhibits high current efficiency (~ 70%) and superb stability.

Here we report a facile approach to synthesize a novel nanostructured thin film comprising Cu nanoparticles (NPs) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) via the direct electrochemical reduction of a mixture of cupper and graphene oxide (GO) precursors. The effect of the applied potential on the electrochemical reduction of CO2 was investigated using linear sweep voltammetric (LSV) and chronoamperometric (CA) techniques. Carbon monoxide and formate were found as the main products based on our GC and HPLC analysis. The electrochemical reduction of CO2 at the Cu/rGO thin film was further studied using in situ ATR-FTIR spectroscopy to identify the liquid product formed at different applied cathodic potentials. Our experimental measurements have shown that the nanostructured Cu/rGO thin film exhibits an excellent stability and superb catalytic activity for the electrochemical reduction of CO2 in an aqueous solution with a high current efficiency of 69.4% at − 0.6 V vs. RHE, promising for the efficient electrochemical conversion of CO2 to valuable products.

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