SnO-Modified Two-Dimensional CuO for Enhanced Electrochemical Reduction of CO to CH.

Electrochemical reduction of CO was a widespread method for CO conversion into valuable chemical fuel. CH is an important product from CO reduction. However, conversion of CO into the hydrocarbon CH faced large energy barriers. Herein, we, for the first time, achieve a high efficiency for electrochemical conversion of CO to CH on a tin-modified CuO. By modifying with Sn, we obtained a related low onset potential of CH as positive as -0.8 V RHE and a high Faradaic efficiency of CH as high as 22% at -1.0 V ( RHE). According to density functional calculation, the Sn dopant mainly enriched the electron density of CuO, while it was electron-poor in the Sn dopants. The rate of CO reduction can be enhanced on Cu nanosheets with higher electron density. We believed that this work would promote the development of two-dimensional catalysts for CO conversion and deepen the understanding of doping on CO reduction.