Strategic catalyst modification for boosting CO₂ concentration at electrode surface and easing selective CO₂ reduction at higher potential

Abstract

Electrochemical CO2 reduction opens up an efficient route to store renewable energy in the form of carbon-based fuel via hydrogenation to itself and ensures a net zero carbon emission energy...

Fractal growth of a fern-like nanostructured Cu2O film electrode for electrochemical reduction of CO2 to ethanol

“…The remaining energy is consumed for hydrogen generation via the HER. 3 Among all, the CuP4T5 electrode shows better electrocatalytic performance with the highest faradaic efficiency of ∼80% at −1.1 V (Fig. 6c) while CuP3T5 and CuP5T5 film electrodes show ∼29% and ∼51% faradaic efficiency at the same potential.…”

“…Region-III shows constant deposition current except in the case of CuP5T5 where a slight drop is observed over a period of deposition time. 3…”

“…The acceleration of anthropogenic pollutant CO 2 gas to the surfeit level has highlighted the urgent need to develop techniques to circumvent the issue. 1–4 Reduction of CO 2 has been achieved by various methods including thermochemical, 5,6 photocatalytic, 7–9 electrochemical, 10–12 and photo-electrochemical. 13,14 CO 2 conversion to obtain value-added products by an electrochemical approach is regarded as a promising and cost-effective strategy to recycle it and simultaneously address the global energy demand.…”

“…In electrodeposition, particle growth, surface structure, morphology and the oxidation state of the deposited copper layers can be controlled by tuning the potential and duration of the deposition. 3,35–38 It has been noted that random morphological arrangement makes it difficult to explain the direct relationship between the morphology and ECO 2 R. 3 To understand the morphology variation and its effect on CO 2 reduction, Gao et al studied three bismuth catalysts with different morphologies and their effect on the reduction efficiency of CO 2 . They found that among the three bismuth catalysts, 2D bismuth nanosheets show better performance (85%) over bismuth nanowires and nanospheres.…”