Almost all-successful CO₂ and CO reduction catalysts to higher chain carbons are based on copper,¹ however various facets and pre-treatments of copper have shown to give a wide variety of product selectivity.^{2, 3} Currently there are many unanswered questions regarding active sites and mechanisms thus fundamental studies are essential for this reaction. This talk will focus on in-situ monitoring the copper-copper oxide crystal structure at a variety of oxidative and reductive potentials. Using the synchrotron facilities at the SLAC national laboratory we were able to achieve an in-depth understand both of how deep the native oxide layer penetrates and how this oxide becomes reduced as we shift towards more cathodic potentials. This talk was also discuss under what conditions there is an amorphous copper oxide layer and what conditions lead to a crystalline copper oxide surface. This will be followed by a discussion of how the copper oxide effects the crystal structure of the metallic copper at the operating conditions.

The in-situ work focused on a preferentially oriented <111> thin film, however there were other facets to a lesser extent. This talk will discuss the degree to which these facets are modified during in-situ operating conditions at various potentials.

1. Hori, Y.; Wakebe, H.; Tsukamoto, T.; Koga, O., Electrocatalytic Process of CO Selectivity in Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 at Metal-Electrodes in Aqueous Media. Electrochimica Acta 1994, 39 (11-12), 1833-1839.
2. Li, C. W.; Ciston, J.; Kanan, M. W., Electroreduction of carbon monoxide to liquid fuel on oxide-derived nanocrystalline copper. Nature 2014, 508 (7497), 504-+.
3. Hori, Y.; Takahashi, I.; Koga, O.; Hoshi, N., Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide at various series of copper single crystal electrodes. Journal of Molecular Catalysis a-Chemical 2003, 199 (1-2), 39-47.