Publication date: 28th August 2024
Basic and industrial research are at present spending a lot of effort to reach the goal of mitigating the global energy crisis by proposing alternative technologies. In this framework, the production of carbon-based chemicals and fuels by exploiting anthropogenic CO2 is nowadays considered a way-out to leave the traditional oil-based technology and to valorize CO2. In fact, renewable and green approaches to CO2 valorisation are aimed at minimizing the worrying impact of its emission to the environment, and to drive the transition to a new circular economy approach in chemistry and energy production. To this aim, electrochemical reduction of CO2 is expected to be a very promising technology. In order to design efficient catalysts for CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) with high activity, selectivity and stability, it is important to understand the fundamental mechanisms involved in the electrochemical processes. In this framework, in situ/operando characterization techniques provide insight into the correlation between physical-chemical properties and the electrochemical performance. Specifically, electrochemical liquid phase transmission electron microscopy (EC-LPTEM) can provide temporally and spatially resolved morphological, structural and chemical information regarding catalytic materials under electrochemical stimulation [1]. Additional characterizations such as operando Raman spectroscopy, can be complementary tools to EC-LPTEM, supporting it with additional information on the reaction intermediates or chemical-physical properties of the catalyst. Within this framework, in this paper, EC-LPTEM experiments on molecular Re@Cu2O/SnO2 catalysts for CO2RR are presented and compared to the lab-scale experiments, shading light on the changes the material undergoes during electrocatalytic activity. In addition, thanks to optimized microfluidic setup [2], it was possible to study this catalyst at conditions which are close to those of interest for the applications.
The authors gratefully acknowledge Protochips Inc. for providing protype small chips and glass chips to perform the experiments.
This work was also funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Mission 4 “Education and Research” - Component 2 “From research to business” - Investment 3.1 “Fund for the realization of an integrated system of research and innovation infrastructures” - Call for tender No. n. 3264 of 28/12/2021 of Italian Ministry of Research funded by the NextGenerationEU - Project code: IR0000027, Concession Decree No. 128 of 21/06/2022 adopted by the Italian Ministry of Research, CUP: B33C22000710006, Project title: iENTRANCE, and carried out within the Ministerial Decree no. 1062/2021
This work was received funding from the FSE REACT-EU-PON Ricerca e Innovazione 2014-2020.
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