One-Pot Soft-Template Synthesis of Nanostructured Copper-Supported Mesoporous Carbon FDU-15 Electrocatalysts for Efficient CO2 Reduction

International audience; Copper-supported mesoporous carbon nanocatalysts (Cu/FDU-15) were synthesized using an easy and convenient one-pot soft-template method for low-overvoltage CO2 electroreduction. TEM imaging revealed the presence of large Cu nanoparticles (diameter 140nm) with Cu2O nanoparticles (16nm) as an additional phase. From the electron tomography observations, we found that the copper particles were placed inside and on the exterior surface of the porous FDU-15 support, providing an accessible surface for electrocatalytic reactions. CO2 electrolyses showed that the mesostructured Cu/FDU-15-350 cathode materials were active towards CO2 conversion to formic acid with 22% Faradaic efficiency at a remarkably low overpotential of 290mV, hydrogen being the only side-product. The catalyst's activity correlates to the calculated metallic surface area, as determined from a geometrical model, confirming that the mesoporous channels act as a diffusion path for the CO2 molecule, and that the whole Cu surface is accessible to CO2, even if particles are entrapped in the carbon matrix.