Evidence for product

Carbon dioxide electroreduction in aqueous media using Cu catalysts can generate many different C2 and C3 products, which leads to the question whether all products are generated from the same types of active sites or if product-specific active sites are responsible for certain products. Here, by reducing mixtures of 13CO and 12CO2, we show that oxide-derived Cu catalysts have three different types of active sites for C–C coupled products, one that produces ethanol and acetate, another that produces ethylene and yet another that produces 1-propanol. In contrast, we do not find evidence of product-specific sites on polycrystalline Cu and oriented (100) and (111) Cu surfaces. Analysis of the isotopic composition of the products leads to the prediction that the adsorption energy of *COOH (the product of the first step of CO2 reduction) may be a descriptor for the product selectivity of a given active site. These new insights should enable highly selective catalysts to be developed.

中文翻译：

使用Cu催化剂在水性介质中进行二氧化碳电还原会生成许多不同的C 2和C 3产物，这引发了一个问题，即所有产物是否均来自相同类型的活性位点或特定产物的活性位点是否对某些产物负责。在这里，通过减少13 CO和12 CO 2的混合物，我们表明，氧化物衍生的Cu催化剂对C-C偶联产品具有三种不同类型的活性中心，一种可生产乙醇和乙酸盐，另一种可生产乙烯，而另一种可生产1-丙醇。相比之下，我们在多晶Cu和取向的（100）和（111）Cu表面上找不到特定于产物的位点的证据。产物的同位素组成的分析导致预测：* COOH（CO 2还原第一步的产物）的吸附能可能是给定活性位点产物选择性的描述符。这些新见解应能开发出高度选择性的催化剂。