In this thesis, Cu-based nanostructures including Cu₃N nanocubes, CuO nanoparticles, Cu₂S nanoparticles, Cu₃Pd_xN nanoparticles and Ag-Cu₂S nanodimers were synthesized by one pot organic phase synthesis and their performance for carbon dioxide electrochemical reduction reaction are investigated. The existence of nitrogen enhances the generation of hydrocarbons and the Cu₃N nanocubes show high C₂H₄ selectivity (32.4% at -0.9 V vs RHE) while Cu₃Pd_xN nanoparticles exhibit good CH₄ selectivity (37.7% at -1.25 V vs RHE). The existence of sulfur increases the faradaic efficiency of alcohols and 24.5% faradaic efficiency of total alcohols is achieved by Ag-Cu₂S nanodimers. The mass loading and pre-treatment are also found to have a significant impact on the performance of carbon dioxide reducti...[ Read more ]

In this thesis, Cu-based nanostructures including Cu₃N nanocubes, CuO nanoparticles, Cu₂S nanoparticles, Cu₃Pd_xN nanoparticles and Ag-Cu₂S nanodimers were synthesized by one pot organic phase synthesis and their performance for carbon dioxide electrochemical reduction reaction are investigated. The existence of nitrogen enhances the generation of hydrocarbons and the Cu₃N nanocubes show high C₂H₄ selectivity (32.4% at -0.9 V vs RHE) while Cu₃Pd_xN nanoparticles exhibit good CH₄ selectivity (37.7% at -1.25 V vs RHE). The existence of sulfur increases the faradaic efficiency of alcohols and 24.5% faradaic efficiency of total alcohols is achieved by Ag-Cu₂S nanodimers. The mass loading and pre-treatment are also found to have a significant impact on the performance of carbon dioxide reduction. By decreasing mass loading and applying CV-pretreatment, the faradaic efficiency for CH₄ of Cu₃Pd_xN is increased from 27% to 55.1% at -1.25 V vs RHE.