Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium dihydrate (EDTA-2Na) For Porous Hollow Copper Microsphere Synthesis

Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), an efficient chelating agent, can form stable water-soluble chelate compounds with almost all transition metal ions, and is widely used in chemical analysis and industrial production.

Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid disodium dihydrate (EDTA-2Na) is the most important salt of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). It can chelate heavy metal ions and separate heavy metals. It is also used in detergents, liquid soap, Shampoo pH adjuster, etc. Recently, scientists have used the chelation of EDTA-2Na to creatively prepare a variety of ligand-modified porous hollow copper microspheres (H-Cu MPs) by electrodeposition.

EDTA-2Na is chelated with Cu²⁺, the space-constrained Cu²⁺ is electro-reduced, and EDTA anions are adsorbed on the fresh copper surface without post-treatment. SEM images show that the synthesized H-Cu MPs have a porous hollow structure, a spherical shape, a diameter of 422±15 nm, and are evenly dispersed on carbon paper. At the same time, the shell is a porous structure composed of flocculated copper nanowires with a multi-level pore size from 10 nm to 50 nm. The STEM dark field image further shows a high-density porous shell formed by interconnected ultra-fine Cu nanowires. HRTEM images show that the electrodeposited H-Cu MPs are polycrystalline, corresponding to the {111} and {100} crystal planes of face-centered cubic copper, respectively.

EDTA anion can be used as a functional group to adjust the surface electron density distribution and stabilize key intermediates, thereby changing the catalytic pathway to ethylene. The researchers found through experiments that by adding EDTA-2Na, in a near-neutral 0.1 M KHCO₃ solution saturated with CO₂, the Faraday efficiency of ethylene increased from 23.3% at 0.82 V to 50.1%, which is equivalent to doubled to reach One of the highest values of copper-based electrodeposition catalysts.

In addition, theoretical calculation shows that the adsorbed EDTA anion can form a locally charged copper surface on the copper surface, stabilize the transition state and dimer, and cooperate with the occo adsorbent to play an auxiliary role in stability, so that the catalyst has excellent catalytic performance.

Porous microspheres, also known as macroporous resins, are a kind of functional polymer materials. In recent years, they have been widely used in chromatography, cosmetics, biomedicine, coatings and other fields. This study used EDTA-2Na to modify porous hollow copper The controllable synthesis of microspheres is also an important breakthrough in the efficient reduction of carbon dioxide into value-added products by electrochemical methods.

Related links: EDTA-2Na

References:Juan Liu, et al, Controlled Synthesis of EDTA Modified Porous Hollow Copper Microspheres for High-Efficiency Conversion of CO2 to Multi-Carbon Products, Nano Lett., 2020,DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c00639