TY - JOUR

T1 - Preparation of Tunable Cu−Ag Nanostructures by Electrodeposition in a Deep Eutectic Solvent

AU - Plaza-Mayoral, Elena

AU - Dalby, Kim N.

AU - Falsig, Hanne

AU - Chorkendorff, Ib

AU - Sebastián-Pascual, Paula

AU - Escudero-Escribano, María

N1 - Funding Information: We acknowledge support from the Danish National Research Foundation Center for High Entropy Alloy Catalysis (CHEAC, DNRF149). MEE and PSP acknowledge the Independent Research Fund Denmark through the DFF‐Research Project1 (Thematic Research, green transition) grant with number: 0217‐00213A. MEE acknowledges the Villum Foundation for financially supporting this project through a Villum Young Investigator Grant (project number: 19142). PSP gratefully acknowledges the Villum Foundation for its financial support (project number:53090). This project has also received funding from Villum Fonden V‐SUSTAIN (grant number: 9455). Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Authors. ChemElectroChem published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - The green transition requires new, clean, inexpensive, and sustainable strategies to prepare controllable bimetallic and multimetallic nanostructures. Cu−Ag nanostructures, for example, are promising bimetallic catalysts for different electrocatalytic reactions such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide reduction. In this work, we present the one-step preparation method of electrodeposited Cu−Ag with tunable composition and morphology from choline chloride plus urea deep eutectic solvent (DES), a non-toxic and green DES. We have assessed how different electrodeposition parameters affect the morphology and composition of our nanostructures. We combine electrochemical methods with ex-situ scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to characterize the nanostructures. We have estimated the electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) and roughness factor (R) by lead underpotential deposition (UPD). The copper/silver ratio in the electrodeposited nanostructures is highly sensitive to the applied potential, bath composition, and loading. We observed that silver-rich nanostructures were less adherent whereas the increase in copper content led to more stable and homogenous films with disperse rounded nanostructures with tiny spikes. These spikes were more stable when the deposition rate was fast enough and the molar ratio of Cu and Ag was no greater than approximately two to one.

AB - The green transition requires new, clean, inexpensive, and sustainable strategies to prepare controllable bimetallic and multimetallic nanostructures. Cu−Ag nanostructures, for example, are promising bimetallic catalysts for different electrocatalytic reactions such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide reduction. In this work, we present the one-step preparation method of electrodeposited Cu−Ag with tunable composition and morphology from choline chloride plus urea deep eutectic solvent (DES), a non-toxic and green DES. We have assessed how different electrodeposition parameters affect the morphology and composition of our nanostructures. We combine electrochemical methods with ex-situ scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to characterize the nanostructures. We have estimated the electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) and roughness factor (R) by lead underpotential deposition (UPD). The copper/silver ratio in the electrodeposited nanostructures is highly sensitive to the applied potential, bath composition, and loading. We observed that silver-rich nanostructures were less adherent whereas the increase in copper content led to more stable and homogenous films with disperse rounded nanostructures with tiny spikes. These spikes were more stable when the deposition rate was fast enough and the molar ratio of Cu and Ag was no greater than approximately two to one.

KW - copper-silver nanostructures

KW - deep eutectic solvent

KW - Electrodeposition

KW - green solvent

KW - tunable nanocatalysts

U2 - 10.1002/celc.202400094

DO - 10.1002/celc.202400094

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85188836787

JO - ChemElectroChem

JF - ChemElectroChem

SN - 2196-0216

ER -