insights into correlating CO coverage and Cu-Au alloying with the selectivity of Au NP-decorated CuO nanocubes during the electrocatalytic CO reduction.

Electrochemical reduction of CO (CORR) is an attractive technology to reintegrate the anthropogenic CO back into the carbon cycle driven by a suitable catalyst. This study employs highly efficient multi-carbon (C) producing CuO nanocubes (NCs) decorated with CO-selective Au nanoparticles (NPs) to investigate the correlation between a high CO surface concentration microenvironment and the catalytic performance. Structure, morphology and near-surface composition are studied X-ray absorption spectroscopy and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, high-energy X-ray diffraction as well as quasi X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.