Selective Carbon Dioxide Reduction Electrocatalysts using Polymer Membranes

Background

The accelerated increase of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere due to anthropogenic activities is causing a host of economic and environmental issues such as coastal flooding, increased catastrophic weather events, shifting agricultural productivities, and decreased biodiversity. To combat rising global CO2 levels in a world with an economy heavily dependent upon fossil fuels, chemical carbon mitigation aims to capture atmospheric CO2 and convert it to value-added products. Electrochemical reduction of CO2 to synthetic fuels using renewable energy sources is a promising approach to store energy into chemical bonds for industrial applications and is a renewable and efficient method of reducing CO2 to various products based on multiple electron transfer mechanisms. 

Description

Researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno have constructed novel polymer-modified electrodes that exhibit high electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to CH4 production at room temperature. Electrochemical reduction of CO2 offers a viable pathway to generating value-added products and synthetic fuels to meet our future energy demands while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Advantages

1. Significantly enhanced CH4 production (88% Faradaic efficiency) 
2. Increased selectivity of CO2 reduction electrocatalysts
3. Very little hydrogen production with aqueous electrolytes

Publications

1. Electrochemical CO2 reduction to methane with remarkably high Faradaic efficiency in the presence of a proton permeable membrane