Small and Narrowly Distributed Copper Nanoparticles Supported on Carbon Prepared by Surface Organometallic Chemistry for Selective Hydrogenation and CO₂ Electroconversion Processes

Copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) are intensively investigated in recent years due to their promising catalytic properties, e. g. selective alkyne hydrogenation and CO₂ electrocatalytic reduction. While dispersing small supported Cu nanoparticles is relatively straightforward on most oxides, obtaining the corresponding small and well dispersed nanoparticles on carbon supports is more challenging because of weaker metal-support interactions resulting typically in larger particles and broader distribution. Here, we show that Surface Organometallic Chemistry can be applied on carbon support and allows the generation of small and narrowly dispersed Cu NPs (4.0+/−1.4 nm) supported on carbon. The thus-obtained Cu nanoparticles are catalytically active in the selective semihydrogenation of an alkyne and the hydrogenation of ethyl cinnamate into the corresponding saturated ester. Moreover, these Cu NPs dispersed on a conductive support catalyze the electroconversion of CO₂ towards C₁ (CO, HCOO⁻, CH₄) and C₂ (C₂H₄) reduction products, with high Cu-specific activity towards methane.