Boosting the Productivity of Electrochemical CO Reduction to Multi-Carbon Products by Enhancing CO Diffusion through a Porous Organic Cage.

Electroreduction of CO into valuable fuels and feedstocks offers a promising way for CO utilization. However, the commercialization is limited by the low productivity. Here, we report a strategy to enhance the productivity of CO electroreduction by improving diffusion of CO to the surface of catalysts using porous organic cages (POCs) as an additive. It was noted that the Faradaic efficiency (FE) of C2+ products could reach 76.1 % with a current density of 1.7 A cm when Cu-nanorod(nr)/CC3 (one of the POCs) was used, which were much higher than that using Cu-nr. Detailed studies demonstrated that the hydrophobic pores of CC3 can adsorb a large amount of CO for the reaction, and the diffusion of CO in the CC3 to the nanocatalyst surface is easier than that in the liquid electrolyte. Thus, more CO molecules make contact with the nanocatalysts in the presence of CC3, enhancing CO reduction and inhibiting generation of H .