Carbon dioxide reduction

Electrochemical CO2 reduction provides a carbon neutral means of converting waste greenhouse CO2 gas and surplus green electricity into valuable fuels and commodity chemicals, including formic acid, carbon monoxide, methane, ethylene, and ethanol.1,2

Our strategy

We have a particularly strong interest in producing high-value, energy-dense products, such as ethylene or ethanol. We are both investigating the state-of-the-art catalyst, nanostructured Cu, and searching for new materials in collaboration with our theorist visitor, Alexander Bagger, such as carbon-based dual atom electro-catalysts. We utilise a variety of different synthetic and electrochemical techniques to synthesise the catalyst and electrodes including wet chemistry, electro-deposition, atomic layer deposition, salt templating, and low-temperature wet impregnation. Furthermore, we investigate how these catalysts evolve during the electrochemical process via operando (synchrotron) spectroscopies and utilise our specialised electrochemistry mass spectrometry to assess gaseous products in-situ.  We are also interested in designing and optimising novel electrolysers for CO2RR and have spent time optimising H-cell, flow cell, and membrane electrode assembly designs. Our work in this area is in close collaboration with Parisa Karimi from the National Research Council of Canada.

 

Contacts: Yuxiang Zhou, Benjamin Bowers, Jesús Barrio Hermida.

References
  1. Stephens, Chan, Bagger, Boettcher, Bonin, Boutin, Buckley, Buonsanti, Cave, Chang, Chee, da Silva, De Luna, Einsle, Endrődi, Escudero Escribano, Ferreira de Araujo, Figueiredo, Hahn, Hansen, Haussener, Hunegnaw, Huo, Jeong Hwang, Janáky, Jayathilake, Jiao, Jovanov, Karimi, Koper, Kuhl, Hee Lee, Liang, Liu, Ma, Ma, Oh, Robert, Roldan Cuenya, Rossmeisl, Roy, Ryan, Sargent, Sebastián-Pascual, Seger, Steier, Strasser, Varela, Vos, Wang, Xu, Yadegari and Zhou, 2022 Roadmap on Low Temperature Electrochemical CO2 Reduction, J. Phys. Energy 2022, in press.
  2. Nitopi, Bertheussen, Scott, Liu, Engstfeld, Horch, Seger, Stephens, Chan, Hahn, Nørskov, Jaramillo, Chorkendorff, Progress and Perspectives of Electrochemical CO2 Reduction on Copper in Aqueous Electrolyte, Chem. Rev. 2019, 119, 12, 7610-7672.