Selective electroreduction of CO2 to CO over co-electrodeposited dendritic core-shell indium-doped Cu@Cu2O catalyst

Element doping is an effective strategy to enhance the selectivity of electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction. In this work, a dendritic core-shell In-doped Cu@Cu2O catalyst is prepared by co-electrodeposition method on carbon fiber paper for selective electroreduction of CO2 to CO. Faradaic efficiency of producing CO over this dendritic In-doped Cu@Cu2O reaches 87.6 +/- 2.2% with total current density of 11.1 +/- 0.85 mA cm(-2) at - 0.8 V vs RHE, which outperforms most of the reported Cu-based electrocatalysts. The excellent performance is mainly derived from charge re-distribution and the enhanced intrinsic activity due to the formation of In-doped Cu2O layer. Meanwhile, the Cu+/Cu-0 can be adjusted by tailoring the doped-In content. The relatively high ECSA and small charge transfer resistance are also conducive to improve the selectivity and activity. The oxyphilic In metal incorporated into the copper lattice can well stabilize the intermediate *COOH through enhancing interaction with O-ends of *COOH. This work provides a facile approach and a deep insight on design and synthesis of high efficiency hybrid electrocatalysts.