Chemical upgrade of carbon monoxide to acetate on an atomically dispersed copper catalyst via CO-insertion

Abstract Electrochemical conversion of small molecules such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) to high-value multi-carbon products (C2+) offers a chemical upgrade approach for fuels and chemical feedstock production using renewable energy, in the possible absence of the petrochemical industry under the new energy system such as hydrogen economy. Identifying robust and efficient electrocatalysts to selectively produce C2+ products remains a challenge. Herein, we report a synthetic strategy of atomically dispersing copper atoms on nitrogen-rich porous carbon (Cu–N–C) through pyrolysis of a supramolecular assembly. Benefitting from the unsaturated coordination structure, in KOH electrolyte, the Cu–N–C with a Cu content of 6.9 wt% exhibits a maximum acetate Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 30% with an acetate partial current density as high as 48 mA cm−2 in electrochemical CO reduction. Different from the C–C coupling mechanism on metallic copper, we propose a CO insertion mechanism for the acetate production on the single site copper catalyst.