Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide to Ethanol: An Approach to Transforming Greenhouse Gas to Fuel Source

Abstract

Converting carbon dioxide (CO2) into high‐value fuels or chemicals is considered as a promising way to utilize CO2 and alleviate the excessive greenhouse gas emission. Among multiple catalysis approaches, electrochemical reduction of CO2 to ethanol has an important prospect due to the high energy density and widely applications of ethanol. In recent years, many electrocatalysts for CO2 reduce reaction (CO2RR) have shown promising catalytic activity for ethanol production. In this review, we will introduce the recent progress in this field. The basic principles and electrochemical performances of CO2RR are reviewed at first. Then, several categories of active electrocatalysts for CO2RR to ethanol are summarized, including the discussion of reaction mechanism and catalytic sites. Finally, several possible strategies are proposed, providing guidance for future design and preparation of high‐performance catalysts.

Conversion of carbon dioxide into solid carbon materials – a mini review

“…The electrocatalytic CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) refers to the electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to desired products, 9 e.g. C1 products (carbon monoxide, 10 formic acid, 11,12 methanol, 13 methane [14][15][16] ), C2 products (ethylene, [17][18][19][20] ethanol [21][22][23] ), and C3 products (propanol 24 ). The first step of CO 2 RR is the activation of CO 2 into a radical intermediate.…”

Review on Heteroatom Doping Carbonaceous Materials Toward Electrocatalytic Carbon Dioxide Reduction

“…Carbon-based materials have attracted much attention due to their diversity, low cost, high conductivity, and high throughput [44]. Nowadays, carbon-based materials have been widely used in energy storage, catalysis, and other fields [45,46] and are also used as effective catalysts for CO 2 RR [47][48][49][50][51]. Carbon-based materials in aqueous solution have chemical inertness under negative potential, which can inhibit H 2 release and improve CO 2 reduction activity.…”

Cu‐Based Organic‐Inorganic Composite Materials for Electrochemical CO2Reduction

“…[28,29] Due to the advantages of mild reaction conditions, wide variety and high energy density of products, electrochemical CO 2 RR driven by renewable energy such as solar energy, wind energy and tide energy, has been considered as an effective and sustainable way to achieve carbon neutrality. [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] As shown in Table 1, [39,40] the relatively close equilibrium potential of individual product and the competitive hydrogen volution reaction (HER) usually lead to the low selectivity of desirable product in electrochemical CO 2 RR. Meanwhile, CO 2 is a chemically inert molecule with the bonding energy of C=O is about 750 kJ mol À 1 .…”

“…Various technologies have been developed for selective CO 2 conversion, such as electrocatalysis, [10–16] photocatalysis, [17–24] thermocatalysis, [25–27] and biocatalysis [28,29] . Due to the advantages of mild reaction conditions, wide variety and high energy density of products, electrochemical CO 2 RR driven by renewable energy such as solar energy, wind energy and tide energy, has been considered as an effective and sustainable way to achieve carbon neutrality [30–38] . As shown in Table 1, [39,40] the relatively close equilibrium potential of individual product and the competitive hydrogen volution reaction (HER) usually lead to the low selectivity of desirable product in electrochemical CO 2 RR.…”