Cu-Thioamide coordination polymers derived Cu-S catalysts for CO2 electroreduction to formate

Sulfur-doped copper (S-doped Cu) was regarded as an efficient catalyst for formate in CO 2 electrochemical reduction reaction (CO 2 RR), but the selectivity and current density are still unsatisfied due to the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and CO generation pathway. Herein, S-doped Cu nanoparticles were synthesized by in-situ reduction of the constructed Cu-thioamide coordination polymers, exhibiting impressive performance for formate production in the CO 2 RR process. Particularly, the CuBr-thiobenzamide (TBA) coordination polymers derived S-doped Cu nanoparticles (CuBr-TBA-R) achieve a formate Faradaic efficiency of 84.4 % with current density of formate to 6.7 mA cm −2 . The characterization results indicate these generated S-doped Cu nanoparticles are uniform with the particle size of 20–30 nm exposed a large amount of Cu (100) facets due to the coordination of thioamide molecules and presence of Br - and I - in electrolyte. The morphological characteristics and strong affinity for oxygen is the reason of higher formate selectivity and current density. This finding reveals the characterizations of efficient S-doped Cu catalysts for formate and provide a controllable approach to prepare these catalysts.