Electroreduction of carbon dioxide to multi-electron reduction products using poly(ionic liquid)-based Cu-Pd catalyst

Electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ (CO₂RR) to multi-electron (> 2e^–) products provides a green and sustainable route for producing fuels and chemicals. Introducing the second metal element is a feasible strategy for "managing" the key intermediate on Cu-based materials to further improve the CO₂RR catalytic performance. In this work, palladium, which promises the generation of CO, was introduced into the poly(ionic liquid)-based copper hybrid (Cu@PIL) to construct a novel Cu-Pd bimetallic electrocatalyst (Cu@PIL@Pd). Remarkably, with a small dosage of palladium (2.0 mol% compared with Cu), a high faradaic efficiency (FE) for C₂₊ products (68.7%) was achieved at –1.01 V (with respect to the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), the same below) with a high partial current density of 178.3 mA cm^–2. Meanwhile, high selectivity towards CH₄ (FE = 42.5%) and corresponding partial current density of 172.8 mA cm^–2 were obtained on the same catalyst at –1.24 V, signifying a significant potential-dependent selectivity. Mechanistic studies reveal that both copper and palladium oxides are reduced to metallic states during the CO₂RR. The presence of the adjoint copper phase and the highly dispersed electrostatic layer promote the generation of CO on the palladium components (both the PdO₂ phase and the Pd(II) site). Besides, the local CO* was enriched by the significant diffusion resistance of CO in the PIL layer. The spillover of CO* from Pd sites to the adjoint Cu sites, accompanied by the increased local concentration of CO* around Cu sites, accounted for the observed good CO₂RR catalytic performance, especially the high C₂₊ product selectivity.