Operando spectroscopic Bragg Coherent Imaging during CO2 Reduction on Copper

The large-scale consumption of fossil fuels since the beginning of the 20th century has caused environmental pollution and has significantly increased the CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Due to global warming this increase has a large effect on the global temperature, raising it by 1°C in recent years. Developing electrocatalysts for CO2 electrochemical reduction (CO2RR) has attracted much attention as a promising means of producing useful chemicals and fuels. The use of Cu and alloyed Cu nanoparticles is an effective strategy to tune the catalytic properties. Furthermore, electrocatalysts play a key role in determining the product selectivity and overpotential in CO2RR. Using spectroscopic Bragg coherent X-ray diffraction imaging (spectro-BCDI), we aim to investigate how these factors manifest themselves at the nanoscale by studying the structural (lattice strain, defects, facets, and morphology), and chemical (composition and oxidation states) characteristics of electrocatalysts under