CuO Nanoparticles Supported on TiO2 with High Efficiency for CO2 Electrochemical Reduction to Ethanol

Non-noble metal oxides consisting of CuO and TiO2 (CuO/TiO2 catalyst) for CO2 reduction were fabricated using a simple hydrothermal method. The designed catalysts of CuO could be in situ reduced to a metallic Cu-forming Cu/TiO2 catalyst, which could efficiently catalyze CO2 reduction to multi-carbon oxygenates (ethanol, acetone, and n-propanol) with a maximum overall faradaic efficiency of 47.4% at a potential of −0.85 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) in 0.5 M KHCO3 solution. The catalytic activity for CO2 electroreduction strongly depends on the CuO contents of the catalysts as-prepared, resulting in different electrochemistry surface areas. The significantly improved CO2 catalytic activity of CuO/TiO2 might be due to the strong CO2 adsorption ability.