Abstract
CO electroreduction has recently been explored as an alternative to CO2 electroreduction for multicarbon product formation, because it bypasses the large carbon loss associated with CO2 electroreduction. Although ethylene is generally obtained as the major product, shifting electrolysis towards the production of alcohols is an industrially promising path forward. Here we report a trimetallic-copper-based catalyst, consisting of copper nitride doped with gold nanoparticles and isolated silver atoms, with high selectivity for the formation of C2+ alcohols (Faradic efficiency for ethanol + n-propanol is >70%), within gas-fed flow cells at high current densities. Although active sites are metallic Cu(111) copper atoms derived from copper nitride, gold and silver doping suppresses ethylene formation due to the increased carbophibicity of the catalyst surface, as shown computationally. Overall, these findings open new perspectives regarding the design of catalysts for the production of liquid products from CO.
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The data that support the findings of this study are available in this Article and its Supplementary Information and can be obtained from the corresponding authors upon request.
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Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by TotalEnergies SE. The in situ XAS experiments at the SAMBA beamline of Synchrotron SOLEIL have been funded by SOLEIL under User Proposal number 20221501 and by the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant GENESIS under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement number 864850). We acknowledge the computing time granted on the high-performance computing (HPC) clusters at TotalEnergies E&P Research & Technology USA. This work was supported by the computational resources provided by Cedar & Cypress. We thank the Houston HPC team for their continuous support and assistance during this project.
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H.P.D. and N.-H.T. contributed to the design of the experiments as well as to acquire and analyse the data. N.-H.T., M.W.S. and M.F. contributed to the conception and design of the work. N.M. performed the TEM and XEDS analyses. J.L. performed the in situ XRD experiments. D.P., A.Z. and Q.A. performed the ex situ and in situ XAS experiments. S.Z. performed the XPS analysis. J.G.R.C. performed the computation work. N.-H.T. and M.F. drafted the work, and M.W.S. substantively revised it.
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Phong Duong, H., Rivera de la Cruz, J.G., Portehault, D. et al. Incorporation of isolated Ag atoms and Au nanoparticles in copper nitride for selective CO electroreduction to multicarbon alcohols. Nat. Mater. 24, 900–906 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-025-02153-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-025-02153-6
