Conspectus
Due to increasing worldwide
fossil fuel consumption, carbon dioxide
levels have increased in the
atmosphere with increasingly important impacts on the environment.
Renewable and clean sources of energy have been proposed, including
wind and solar, but they are intermittent and require efficient and
scalable energy storage technologies. Electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) provides a valuable approach
in this area. It combines solar- or wind-generated electrical production
with energy storage in the chemical bonds of carbon-based fuels. It
can provide ways to integrate carbon capture, utilization, and storage
in energy cycles while maintaining controlled levels of atmospheric
CO2.
Electrochemistry allows for the utilization
of an electrical input
to drive chemical reactions. Because CO2 is kinetically
inert, highly active catalysts are required to decrease reaction barriers
sufficiently so that reaction rates can be achieved that are sufficient
for electrochemical CO2 reduction. Given the reaction barriers
associated with multiple electron–proton reduction of CO2 to CO, formaldehyde (HC(O)H), formic acid, or formate (HC(O)OH,
HC(O)O–), or more highly reduced forms of carbon,
there is also a demand for high selectivity in catalysis. Catalysts
that have been explored include homogeneous catalysts in solution,
catalysts immobilized on surfaces, and heterogeneous catalysts. In
homogeneous catalysis, reduction occurs following diffusion of the
catalyst to an electrode where multiple proton coupled electron transfer
reduction occurs. Useful catalysts in this area are typically transition-metal
complexes with organic ligands and electron transfer properties that
utilize combinations of metal and ligand redox levels. As a way to
limit the amount of catalyst, in device-like configurations, catalysts
are added to the surfaces of conductive substrates by surface binding,
in polymeric films, or on carbon electrode surfaces with molecular
structures and electronic configurations related to catalysts in solution.
Immobilized, homogeneous catalysts can suffer from performance
losses and even decomposition during long-term CO2 reduction
cycles, but they are amenable to detailed mechanistic investigations.
In parallel efforts, heterogeneous nanocatalysts have been explored
in detail with the development of facile synthetic procedures that
can offer highly active catalytic surface areas. Their high activity
and stability have attracted a significant level of investigation,
including possible exploitation for large-scale applications. However,
translation of catalytic reactivity to the surface creates a new reactivity
environment and complicates the elucidation of mechanistic details
and identification of the active site in exploring reaction pathways.
Here, the results of previous studies based on transition-metal
complex catalysts for CO2 electroreduction are summarized.
Early studies showed that transition-metal complexes of Ru, Ir, Rh,
and Os, with well-defined structures, are all capable of catalyzing...