Development of catalytic activity protocol for electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to value added products

作者：Singh Surya; Mukherjee Chandan; Verma Anil^*

来源：Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 2015, 17(2): 533-540.

DOI：10.1007/s10098-014-0796-6

• Electrocatalyst
• Cobalt oxide
• Cyclic voltammetry
• Electrochemical reduction of CO2
• Formaldehyde

Utilization of carbon dioxide for the production of value added products is a challenging task. Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide is one of the most promising techniques to convert the carbon dioxide into value added products. However, the development and selection of a suitable electrocatalyst is not so straightforward. The main problems are non-selectivity of the electrocatalyst toward CO2 reduction, simultaneous hydrogen evolution reaction, and low efficiency of the process. To overcome these problems, many electrocatalysts have been studied and reported in the literature. However, there is no effective guideline to screen the electrocatalysts in a quick and simple way. Moreover, it is found that the method used for the screening of electrocatalyst is not accurate and has anomalies. Therefore, in this paper, a simple and quick protocol based on half-cell tests is proposed. The method provides a first-hand prediction about the electrochemical activity of an electrocatalyst toward electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide. The protocol was validated and compared along with confirming the results by product analysis of the electrochemical reduction of CO2 using full electrochemical reactor. The method was found satisfactory for the preliminary screening of electrocatalyst to reduce carbon dioxide electrochemically.

• 出版日期2015-2