Copper/Carbon Heterogenous Interfaces for Enhanced Selective Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO2 to Formate

Abstract Electrochemical reduction of CO 2 (CO 2 RR) to formate is a promising route to prepare value‐added chemical. Developing low‐cost and efficient electrocatalysts with high product selectivity is still a grand challenge. Herein, a novel Cu anchored on hollow carbon spheres catalysts (HCS/Cu‐ x , x represents the mass of CuCl 2 added in the system) is designed with controllable copper/carbon heterogenous interfaces. Rich copper/carbon heterogenous interfaces and hollow structure of optimized HCS/Cu‐0.12 catalyst are beneficial to charge transmission. Compared with the CO 2 RR occurred in aqueous electrolyte over Cu‐based catalyst that has been reported to date, it exhibits highest formate Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 82.4% with a current density of 26 mA cm −2 and remarkable stability in a H‐cell.