Overlayer Au-on-W Near-Surface Alloy for the Selective Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to Methanol: Empirical (DEMS) Corroboration of a Computational (DFT) Prediction

Understanding Electrochemical CO2 Reduction through Differential Electrochemical Mass Spectrometry

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 powered by renewable energy is a viable pathway to produce valuable fuels and chemicals, while simultaneously helping to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The strong research interest in improving the selectivity and efficiency of CO2 reduction has led to a multitude of electrocatalyst studies that employ a variety of electrochemical, spectroscopic, spectrometric, and materials characterization analytical techniques. Among these, differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS) has become an increasingly instrumental tool for investigating electrocatalyst performance by enabling in situ volatile product detection. DEMS has the significant advantages of being able to rapidly screen product distributions in real time as the potential is varied and distinguishing isotopically labeled species for mechanistic studies. There are also challenges for employing DEMS to study CO2 reduction, including cell design limitations for optimal mass transport and high product ion current signal, a lack of nonvolatile product detection, and the difficulty of extracting reliable, quantitative faradaic efficiency measurements. Many researchers have applied DEMS to study the reduction of CO2 on numerous catalysts under a variety of conditions, highlighting cell designs and protocols for overcoming some of these challenges. This review focuses on the implementation of DEMS in the study of electrochemical CO2 reduction, explaining the working principle and the various commonly employed cell designs and highlighting the findings of key reports that were enabled by DEMS.

Circumventing the scaling relationship on bimetallic monolayer electrocatalysts for selective CO2 reduction

Dual-functional active sites are designed to circumvent the scaling relationship between the HER and CO2RR on bimetallic monolayer electrocatalysts.

In Situ Characterization for Boosting Electrocatalytic Carbon Dioxide Reduction

The electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide into organic fuels and feedstocks is a fascinating method to implement the sustainable carbon cycle. Thus, a rational design of advanced electrocatalysts and a deep understanding of reaction mechanisms are crucial for the complex reactions of carbon dioxide reduction with multiple electron transfer. In situ and operando techniques with real-time monitoring are important to obtain deep insight into the electrocatalytic reaction to reveal the dynamic evolution of electrocatalysts' structure and composition under experimental conditions. In this paper, the reaction pathways for the CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂ RR) in the generation of various products (e.g., C₁ and C₂ ) via the proposed mechanisms are introduced. Moreover, recent advances in the development and applications of in situ and operando characterization techniques, from the basic working principles and in situ cell structure to detailed applications are discussed. Suggestions and future directions of in situ/operando analysis are also addressed.

Electrocatalysis for CO2 conversion: from fundamentals to value-added products

This timely and comprehensive review mainly summarizes advances in heterogeneous electroreduction of CO₂: from fundamentals to value-added products.

Copper-Based Metal-Organic Porous Materials for CO2 Electrocatalytic Reduction to Alcohols

The electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ has been investigated using four Cu-based metal-organic porous materials supported on gas diffusion electrodes, namely, (1) HKUST-1 metal-organic framework (MOF), [Cu₃ (μ₆ -C₉ H₃ O₆ )₂ ]_n ; (2) CuAdeAce MOF, [Cu₃ (μ₃ -C₅ H₄ N₅ )₂ ]_n ; (3) CuDTA mesoporous metal-organic aerogel (MOA), [Cu(μ-C₂ H₂ N₂ S₂ )]_n ; and (4) CuZnDTA MOA, [Cu_0.6 Zn_0.4 (μ-C₂ H₂ N₂ S₂ )]_n . The electrodes show relatively high surface areas, accessibilities, and exposure of the Cu catalytic centers as well as favorable electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction performance, that is, they have a high efficiency for the production of methanol and ethanol in the liquid phase. The maximum cumulative Faradaic efficiencies for CO₂ conversion at HKUST-1-, CuAdeAce-, CuDTA-, and CuZnDTA-based electrodes are 15.9, 1.2, 6, and 9.9 %, respectively, at a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 , an electrolyte-flow/area ratio of 3 mL min cm^-2 , and a gas-flow/area ratio of 20 mL min cm^-2 . We can correlate these observations with the structural features of the electrodes. Furthermore, HKUST-1- and CuZnDTA-based electrodes show stable electrocatalytic performance for 17 and 12 h, respectively.