Journal ArticleDOI
Electroreduction of carbon monoxide to liquid fuel on oxide-derived nanocrystalline copper
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The results demonstrate the ability to change the intrinsic catalytic properties of Cu for this notoriously difficult reaction by growing interconnected nanocrystallites from the constrained environment of an oxide lattice, demonstrating the feasibility of a two-step conversion of CO2 to liquid fuel that could be powered by renewable electricity.Abstract:
The electrochemical conversion of CO and H2O into liquid fuel is made feasible at modest potentials with the use of oxide-derived nanocystalline Cu as the catalyst. Renewable electricity is often produced when it is not needed. If the surplus could be harnessed to drive the conversion of CO2 and water into liquid fuel, the energy would not go to waste and a use would be found for CO2 produced by carbon capture. All this requires efficient electrocatalysts that reduce CO2 not only to CO, but also further into fuel chemicals. Copper does this but with low efficiency and selectivity. Christina Li et al. now show that the intrinsic catalytic properties of copper can be improved by producing it from its oxide as interconnected nanocrystallites. Their enhanced catalyst generates primarily ethanol, demonstrating that a two-step conversion of CO2 to liquid fuel powered by renewable electricity might be possible. The electrochemical conversion of CO2 and H2O into liquid fuel is ideal for high-density renewable energy storage and could provide an incentive for CO2 capture. However, efficient electrocatalysts for reducing CO2 and its derivatives into a desirable fuel1,2,3 are not available at present. Although many catalysts4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11 can reduce CO2 to carbon monoxide (CO), liquid fuel synthesis requires that CO is reduced further, using H2O as a H+ source. Copper (Cu) is the only known material with an appreciable CO electroreduction activity, but in bulk form its efficiency and selectivity for liquid fuel are far too low for practical use. In particular, H2O reduction to H2 outcompetes CO reduction on Cu electrodes unless extreme overpotentials are applied, at which point gaseous hydrocarbons are the major CO reduction products12,13. Here we show that nanocrystalline Cu prepared from Cu2O (‘oxide-derived Cu’) produces multi-carbon oxygenates (ethanol, acetate and n-propanol) with up to 57% Faraday efficiency at modest potentials (–0.25 volts to –0.5 volts versus the reversible hydrogen electrode) in CO-saturated alkaline H2O. By comparison, when prepared by traditional vapour condensation, Cu nanoparticles with an average crystallite size similar to that of oxide-derived copper produce nearly exclusive H2 (96% Faraday efficiency) under identical conditions. Our results demonstrate the ability to change the intrinsic catalytic properties of Cu for this notoriously difficult reaction by growing interconnected nanocrystallites from the constrained environment of an oxide lattice. The selectivity for oxygenates, with ethanol as the major product, demonstrates the feasibility of a two-step conversion of CO2 to liquid fuel that could be powered by renewable electricity.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Atomically dispersed Sn modified with trace sulfur species derived from organosulfide complex for electroreduction of CO2
TL;DR: In this article , atomically-dispersed Sn nanoclusters modified with the trace of sulfur doping are proposed to efficiently electroreduce CO2 to C1 chemicals, which exhibits a high Faradaic efficiency (90%) for carbonaceous products at a moderate overpotential (0.75 V).
Journal ArticleDOI
Recent advances on electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to resources: target products, reaction pathways and typical catalysts
Yaru Lei,Zheng Wang,Ai Bao,Xiaolong Wang,Xiubing Huang,Honghong Yi,Shunzheng Zhao,Tingguang Sun,Junyi Wang,Fengyu Gao +9 more
TL;DR: In this article , the authors summarized the possible transformation pathways of one-carbon (C 1 ), two-carbon(C 2 ), and multi-carboxyl (C 2+ ) products in CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) and concluded that the development of catalysts with high selectivity, Faraday efficiency, current density, stability and low cost, and indepth study of catalytic mechanism are still the current research direction of electrocatalytic CO 2 RR.
Journal ArticleDOI
Directly synthesized silver nanoparticles on gas diffusion layers by electrospray pyrolysis for electrochemical CO2 reduction
TL;DR: In this paper, nano-sized silver particles were deposited on a gas diffusion electrodes (GDE) by electrospray pyrolysis without additional immobilizing or annealing steps.
Journal ArticleDOI
Nanofibers of Polyaniline and Cu(II)-l-Aspartic Acid for a Room-Temperature Carbon Monoxide Gas Sensor.
S. F. Nami-Ana,Sh. Nasresfahani,Javad Tashkhourian,Mojtaba Shamsipur,Z. Zargarpour,Mohammad Hossein Sheikhi +5 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the carbon monoxide (CO) sensing property of Cu(II)-l-aspartic acid nanofibers/polyaniline (PANI) composite was investigated at room temperature.
Journal ArticleDOI
Recent progress in advanced core-shell metal-based catalysts for electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction
Feng-Qi Wang,Wen-Long Zhang,Hongbin Wan,Chenxi Li,Wan-Kai An,Xia Sheng,Xiaoyu Liang,Xiaopeng Wang,Yunlai Ren,Xin Zheng,Dongcan Lv,Yuchen Qin +11 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the advanced core-shell metal-based catalysts for electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction (CO2RR) and propose the opportunities and challenges in the field of electrochemical CO2RR.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
New insights into the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide on metallic copper surfaces
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report new insights into the electrochemical reduction of CO2 on a metallic copper surface, enabled by the development of an experimental methodology with unprecedented sensitivity for the identification and quantification of CO 2 electroreduction products.
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TL;DR: This tutorial review will present much of the significant work that has been done in the field of electrocatalytic and homogeneous reduction of carbon dioxide over the past three decades and extend the discussion to the important conclusions from previous work and recommendations for future directions to develop a catalytic system that will convert carbon dioxide to liquid fuels with high efficiencies.
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Frontiers, Opportunities, and Challenges in Biochemical and Chemical Catalysis of CO2 Fixation
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TL;DR: Providing a future energy supply that is secure and CO_2-neutral will require switching to nonfossil energy sources such as wind, solar, nuclear, and geothermal energy and developing methods for transforming the energy produced by these new sources into forms that can be stored, transported, and used upon demand.
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