Copper‐Based Metal–Organic Porous Materials for CO2 Electrocatalytic Reduction to Alcohols

Abstract The electrocatalytic reduction of CO 2 has been investigated using four Cu‐based metal–organic porous materials supported on gas diffusion electrodes, namely, (1) HKUST‐1 metal–organic framework (MOF), [Cu 3 (μ 6 ‐C 9 H 3 O 6 ) 2 ] n ; (2) CuAdeAce MOF, [Cu 3 (μ 3 ‐C 5 H 4 N 5 ) 2 ] n ; (3) CuDTA mesoporous metal–organic aerogel (MOA), [Cu(μ‐C 2 H 2 N 2 S 2 )] n ; and (4) CuZnDTA MOA, [Cu 0.6 Zn 0.4 (μ‐C 2 H 2 N 2 S 2 )] n . The electrodes show relatively high surface areas, accessibilities, and exposure of the Cu catalytic centers as well as favorable electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction performance, that is, they have a high efficiency for the production of methanol and ethanol in the liquid phase. The maximum cumulative Faradaic efficiencies for CO 2 conversion at HKUST‐1‐, CuAdeAce‐, CuDTA‐, and CuZnDTA‐based electrodes are 15.9, 1.2, 6, and 9.9 %, respectively, at a current density of 10 mA cm −2 , an electrolyte‐flow/area ratio of 3 mL min cm −2 , and a gas‐flow/area ratio of 20 mL min cm −2 . We can correlate these observations with the structural features of the electrodes. Furthermore, HKUST‐1‐ and CuZnDTA‐based electrodes show stable electrocatalytic performance for 17 and 12 h, respectively.