University of Alicante

About: University of Alicante is a education organization based out in Alicante, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Catalysis & Population. The organization has 8681 authors who have published 22690 publications receiving 476064 citations. The organization is also known as: Universitat d'Alacant & Universidad de Alicante.

Production of methanol from CO2 electroreduction at Cu2O and Cu2O/ZnO-based electrodes in aqueous solution

Abstract: In this study, we examine the performance of Cu 2 O and Cu 2 O/ZnO surfaces in a filter-press electrochemical cell for the continuous electroreduction of CO 2 into methanol The electrodes are prepared by airbrushing the metal particles onto a porous carbon paper and then are electrochemically characterized by cyclic voltammetry analyses Particular emphasis is placed on evaluating and comparing the methanol production and Faradaic efficiencies at different loadings of Cu 2 O particles (05, 1 and 18 mg cm −2 ), Cu 2 O/ZnO weight ratios (1:05, 1:1 and 1:2) and electrolyte flow rates (1, 2 and 3 ml min −1 cm −2 ) The electrodes including ZnO in their catalytic surface were stable after 5 h, in contrast with Cu 2 O-deposited carbon papers that present strong deactivation with time The maximum methanol formation rate and Faradaic efficiency for Cu 2 O/ZnO (1:1)-based electrodes, at an applied potential of −13 V vs Ag/AgCl, were r = 317 × 10 −5 mol m −2 s −1 and FE = 177 %, respectively Consequently, the use of Cu 2 O–ZnO mixtures may be of application for the continuous electrochemical formation of methanol, although further research is still required in order to develop highly active, selective and stable catalysts the electroreduction of CO 2 to methanol