Abstract

The massive production of carbon dioxide (CO 2) poses a serious threat to life on Earth.

Electrochemical CO 2 reduction offers a promising route to convert CO 2 into valuable fuels and feedstock chemicals. Among available catalysts, copper (Cu), a heterogeneous catalyst, exhibits excellent catalytic efficiency in converting CO 2 to oxygenates and hydrocarbon fuels. Herein, to the best of our knowledge, we report for the first time the facile synthesis of trimetallic CuAuAg nanoparticles decorated on CuO sheets (CuAuAg/CuO composite) via the pulsed laser irradiation in liquid method, further used as a catalyst for the electroreduction of CO 2 to various products such as syngas (CO and H 2), methane (CH 4), formate, ethene (C 2H 4), and ethane (C 2H 6). A Faradaic efficiency of 77.34% was achieved for CO production using CuAuAg/CuO at −1.0 V vs. RHE. In situ analysis of CuAuAg/CuO composite unveiled the CO 2 reduction pathways , further confirmed via density functional theory. The trimetallic CuAuAg/CuO composites were designed for highly efficient CO 2 conversion. A high CO yield of 5.1 mL was achieved using CuAuAg/CuO composite at −1.0 V vs. RHE, representing the highest value reported to date. This study proclaims excellent CO 2 conversion efficiency for large-scale biofuel production and potential fuel cell applications.