HKUST-l Derived Copper Phosphide Nanomaterials for Electrocatalytic Carbon Dioxide Reduction

Abstract

Efficient electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (C02) to valuable products, such as carbon monoxide (CO), is crucial for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and enabling renewable energy storage. The current research work has been designed to synthesize copper-based metal organic framework (HKUST-l), and HKUST-l derived copper phosphide nanomaterials (CU3P@C). The as-prepared materials are then characterized by using powder XRD and used as an electrocatalyst towards electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction (eC02RR) to carbon monoxide in 0.1 M KHC03. (5M) CU3P@C acts as an effective electrocatalyst for the selective C02 reduction to CO amongst all other synthesized ratios (nonnal CU3P@C, 1M, 2M,3M, and 4M CU3P@C). The (5M) CU3P@C catalyst demonstrates exceptional performance, with ~88% Faradaic efficiency for CO production, quantitatively measured using GC-TCD. Another useful product like ethanol was also detected in electrolyte confinned by HS-GC-FID. Through one-step carbonization of metal-enriched MOF (HKUST-l) under PH3/Ar gas, the novel CU3P@C nanomaterials were produced. The optimized electrocatalyst (5M) CU3P@C, exhibits a very high current density of 60 rnA cm -2, and a very low overpotential of only 177 m V, outperforming normal CU3P@C (411 mY). The (5M) CU3P@C electrocatalyst shows long-tenn stability for 3 h at different potentials, rapid reaction kinetics confinned by a low value of Tafel slope (76 m V dec-I), and high electrochemical active surface area (ECSA) 306 9 cm2. These findings highlight (5M) CU3P@C as a promising C02 reduction catalyst, with implications for sustainable energy conversion techniques.