Cu(2)O-Ag Tandem Catalysts for Selective Electrochemical Reduction of CO(2) to C(2) Products

The electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO(2)RR) to C(2) chemicals has received great attention. Here, we report the cuprous oxide (Cu(2)O) nanocubes cooperated with silver (Ag) nanoparticles via the replacement reaction for a synergetic CO(2)RR. The Cu(2)O-Ag tandem catalyst exhibits an impressive Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 72.85% for C(2) products with a partial current density of 243.32 mA·cm(−2). The electrochemical experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the introduction of Ag improves the intermediate CO concentration on the catalyst surface and meanwhile reduces the C-C coupling reaction barrier energy, which is favorable for the synthesis of C(2) products.