Highly Electrocatalytic Ethylene Production from CO on Nanodefective Cu Nanosheets.

The electrochemical synthesis of chemicals from carbon dioxide, which is an easily available and renewable carbon resource, is of great importance. However, to achieve high product selectivity for desirable C products like ethylene is a big challenge. Here we design Cu nanosheets with nanoscaled defects (2-14 nm) for the electrochemical production of ethylene from carbon dioxide. A high ethylene Faradaic efficiency of 83.2% is achieved. It is proved that the nanoscaled defects can enrich the reaction intermediates and hydroxyl ions on the electrocatalyst, thus promoting C-C coupling for ethylene formation.