Rational design of copper electrocatalysts with tailored distribution of facets for the production of fuels (ElectroFuel).

Copper is an active catalyst for the electrochemical hydrogenation of carbon-containing molecules to produce liquid fuels. Copper can convert carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, into ethanol and propanol. It can also convert furfural, an abundant biomass-derived feedstock, into 2-methylfuran, a biofuel.

The electrocatalytic conversion of CO2 and furfural has two main challenges: 1) Many reported copper-based catalysts lack proper geometric and chemical control at the surface which causes the simultaneous formation of different compounds and poor product selectivity. 2) Copper favors the production of hydrogen from water over the conversion of CO2 and biomass into fuels.I will address these challenges in a new way.

I have developed a quantitative method to decouple the different surface active sites´ contributions on copper.

This method records the adsorption/desorption of lead on copper with a cyclic voltammetry technique, which gives a different response for each site´s geometry.

Using this strategy, I aim to show that product selectivity is surface-sensitive and can be controlled by rational tuning of the copper catalyst structure.

I will involve two PhD students in a four-year project in which we will synthesize copper nanostructures with tailored surface active sites´ composition and geometry to make renewable fuels.

Then we will tune the electrolyte-solvent composition to reduce the formation of hydrogen and increase the utilization of CO2 and furfural.