Bimetallic Copper-Silver Catalysts for the Electrochemical Reduction of CO₂ to Ethanol

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to ethanolis apromising way to make CO2 electrolysis economically feasible.In this work, a bimetallic catalyst of silver and copper is synthesized,and the effect of its copper content on the formation of ethanol isanalyzed. By decreasing the near-surface copper content from 99 to45% (measured by XPS) at a current density of -20 mA cm(-2), the Faradaic efficiency of ethanol could be enhancedfrom 5 to 23%. Moreover, we show that with excess of CO, due to alower copper and a higher silver near-surface content, the formationof ethanol is favored over ethylene.