Synthesis of Cu-g-C₃N₄/MoS₂ composite as a catalyst for electrochemical CO₂ reduction to alcohols

Designing a vastly effective and stable electrocatalyst for accelerating CO₂ reduction is presented and discussed. Herein, we report a Cu-based composite material comprising of g-C₃N₄, MoS_2, and copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) for more efficient electrochemical CO₂ reduction. The g-C₃N₄/MoS₂ is used as a support for Cu NPs as part of the novel composite structure (Cu-g-C₃N₄/MoS₂). The material exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity because of synergistic effect arises from their components. The material also demonstrated higher efficiency in the CO₂ reduction compared to other composites such as Cu NPs supported on g-C₃N₄ (i.e., Cu-g-C₃N₄) and MoS₂ (i.e., Cu-MoS₂) with reference to superior current density and potential. The synthesized Cu-g-C₃N₄/MoS₂ composite material demonstrated the highest faradaic efficiency of 19.7% and 4.8% for methanol and ethanol, respectively. Electrochemical impedance measurement confirms charge transfer enhancement in Cu-g-C₃N₄/MoS₂ composite material compared to Cu-g-C₃N₄ and Cu-MoS₂. Chronoamperometric measurement confirms the high stability of the composite material without degradation in the current density up to 30 h.