Proceedings of nanoGe Fall Meeting 2018 (NFM18)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nfm.2018.234
Publication date: 6th July 2018
The electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 has attracted high attention recently, not only to reduce the carbon footprint, but for the possibility to produce value-added chemicals, such as carbon monoxide, formic acid, methanol or more complex organic molecules like ethanol or ethylene, under ambient temperature and pressure conditions. However, the real application of these electrochemical techniques are still a challenge, and efforts have to be made in decrease the overpotential, improve the product selectivity and stability of the electrocatalyst. Among all the CO2 reduction products that can be obtained, we have focused our research in formic acid, as it has been receiving great industrial attention for its several applications in fuel cells, textile or chemical industries.
We have studied two different metals and the combination of both as electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction to formic acid: tin (Sn)1 and palladium (Pd)2. Electrodeposited Sn has shown a potential around -0,8 VRHE at 10 mA/cm2 and a faradaic efficiency to formate around 70% using KHCO3 as electrolyte. On the other hand, under the same experimental conditions, the electrode containing Pd nanoparticles supported on carbon black shows a potential around -0.25 VRHE at 10 mV/cm2 and more than 80% of faradaic efficiency. The cathode potential obtained with Pd electrodes in comparison with Sn is 500 mV lower however, the catalyst working at such high current density is rapidly poisoned with CO (subproduct of the CO2 reduction) and the faradaic efficiency to formic is decreased dramatically. In this work, we present how the combination of both catalysts can be used to modulate the overpotential of the CO2 electroreduction reaction, the selectivity and the electrode stability under continuous operation. Also, a novel technique of co-electrodeposition of both metals is achieved, showing an alternative method to produce easily tunable electrodes, which facilitates and enhance the possible coupling to a photo-absorbing element in a complete photoelectrochemical cell.
References:
1. J. Mater. Chem. A,2016, 4, 13582–13588
2. ACS Energy Lett. 2016, 1, 764−770
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