Ward van der Stam

             Utrecht University

             Marta Costa Figueiredo

             Technical University Eindhoven

Symposium 1

June 9th - Advances in material design strategies for CO₂ electrocatalysis.

Chairperson: Dr. Marta Costa Figueiredo

Invited Speakers

Symposium 2

June 11th - Structure-function relationships through in situ/ operando spectroscopy and modelling in CO₂ electrocatalysis.

Chairperson: Dr. Ward van der Stam

Invited Speakers

nanoGe is eager to promote the organization of online seminars. Do you have a topic? It's very easy to launch a meetup! Just describe the topic, decide a few speakers, and fill the form.

Most important: We wish to encourage participation of both junior and senior researchers, please propose interesting research directions.

We currently use Zoom for our online conferences.

After the news appeared in the last days, our technical team and different experts have verified that the use of Zoom does not imply a direct security problem for the user, provided the following measures are followed:

• Keep updated to the latest version.
• Do not share user or conference ID or passwords.
• Do not share the url (web address) that reaches you to access.
• Do not download Zoom from unofficial websites
• .Verify that the emails you receive to access our conferences are from Zoom.us, nanoGe.org or Scito.org.

The Online Meetup Structure-function Relationships in CO₂ Electrocatalysis (CO2cat) took place from 9th to 10th June 2020.

Electrocatalytic conversion of CO₂ into hydrocarbon fuels and chemical feedstocks is considered as a viable way to assist the energy transition away from fossil fuels. Currently, various groups around the world focus on optimizing the catalytic materials through variations in size, shape and composition, which has already resulted in improved catalyst stability and CO₂ conversion efficiencies up to 80% for base chemicals such as carbon monoxide and ethylene. However, only several examples have successfully shown that longer hydrocarbon chains can be formed through CO2 electroreduction, albeit with moderate efficiency. In order to understand the limiting factors and take the next step towards the efficient production of longer hydrocarbon chains, the attention of several researchers has moved towards in situ/operando spectroscopy and modelling. Through in situ/operando spectroscopy and modelling, the factors that govern C-C coupling toward long chain hydrocarbons can potentially be elucidated, which can be used to design improved catalyst materials in terms of catalytic activity, stability and selectivity.

‘Structure-function relationships in CO₂ electrocatalysis’ is an online seminar in which we want to focus on the efforts in material design, in situ/operando spectroscopy and modelling to couple the structure of the electrocatalyst to its catalytic performance. The overarching aim is to build bridges between these efforts and move toward combinations that will result in a full understanding of the catalyst at work: from the nanoscale active sites to the bound intermediates to the production of value-added compounds.

In this Online Meetup, the state-of-the-art in these different subfields (materials, spectroscopy and modelling) was discussed, as well as future directions that might be pursued.

This online meetup was separated into two Symposium:

• S1: Advances in material design strategies for CO₂ electrocatalysis.
• S2: Structure-function relationships through in situ/ operando spectroscopy and modelling in CO₂ electrocatalysis.

Topics to be covered by the conference:

Symposium 1 - Advances in material design strategies for CO₂ electrocatalysis- June 9th.

• Material design strategies for CO₂ electrocatalysis (including, but not limited to, colloidal nanostructures, bimetallics, porous electrodes, selective facet exposure)
• Nanoscale synergistic and local effects (including, but not limited to, factors for C-C coupling, reaction mechanisms, local pH, bimetallics, tandem catalysis)

Symposium 2 - Structure-function relationships through in situ/ operando spectroscopy and modelling in CO₂ electrocatalysis-  June 10th.

• Techniques for structure-function relationships (including, but not limited to, in situ/operando characterization, Raman and infrared spectroscopy, X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy, cell design)
• Modelling on CO2 electrocatalysis.