Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Song, Yang
• Peng, Rui
• Hensley, Dale K.
• Bonnesen, Peter V.
• Liang, Liangbo
• Wu, Zili
• Meyer, Harry M.
• Chi, Miaofang
• Ma, Cheng
• Sumpter, Bobby G.
• Rondinone, Adam J.

Titel

High‐Selectivity Electrochemical Conversion of CO2 to Ethanol using a Copper Nanoparticle/N‐Doped Graphene Electrode

Ist Teil von

• ChemistrySelect (Weinheim), 2016-11, Vol.1 (19), p.6055-6061

Ort / Verlag

United States: Wiley

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Quelle

Wiley Online Library - AutoHoldings Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Though carbon dioxide is a waste product of combustion, it can also be a potential feedstock for the production of fine and commodity organic chemicals provided that an efficient means to convert it to useful organic synthons can be developed. Herein we report a common element, nanostructured catalyst for the direct electrochemical conversion of CO2 to ethanol with high Faradaic efficiency (63 % at −1.2 V vs RHE) and high selectivity (84 %) that operates in water and at ambient temperature and pressure. Lacking noble metals or other rare or expensive materials, the catalyst is comprised of Cu nanoparticles on a highly textured, N‐doped carbon nanospike film. Electrochemical analysis and density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggest a preliminary mechanism in which active sites on the Cu nanoparticles and the carbon nanospikes work in tandem to control the electrochemical reduction of carbon monoxide dimer to alcohol. A nanostructured catalyst achieves one‐pot electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide to ethanol. The catalyst is comprised of copper nanoparticles imbedded in N‐doped carbon nanospikes. Carbon dioxide is electrochemically reduced on copper particles to carbon monoxide, which dimerizes. Electrochemical reduction of the dimer yields ethanol with an overall Faradaic efficiency of 63 %.