Selective CO2 Reduction to CO and Alcohols without Platinum or Noble Group Electrodes

Introduction

The electrochemical conversion of CO2 to carbon-based feedstocks represents one of the few technological routes capable of replacing fossil fuel derivatives. Despite substantial advancements, however, major challenges impair CO2 electrolysis from matching its promise.

Challenges in CO2 Electrolysis

Critically, steady acidification of CO2 electrolyzers during operation currently necessitates the use of iridium-based anodes. This is unacceptable from a cost and resource availability perspective. More fundamentally, while CO2 reduction to CO, formate, and ethylene has become highly selective, the production of high-energy density alcohols with high selectivity has been elusive.

To overcome these barriers, new scientific approaches are needed.

Project Overview: RECALLCO2

RECALLCO2 will resolve iridium dependencies and non-selective alcohol production in CO2 electrolysis through a combination of novel electrochemical cell design and the development of molecular catalytic architectures which break existing fundamental limitations.

System Design Innovations

On the system design front, I will micro manipulate reagent, ionic, and water fluxes to inhibit nickel corrosion pathways which presently necessitate iridium anodes. This will be the first-ever intrinsically stable CO2 electrolyzer capable of using nickel anodes.

Conceptual Framework

A second pillar is the conceptualization that strong electronic coupling of metal complexes to metal electrodes can eliminate redox-controlled reaction pathways on molecular catalysts. This counters decades of work using carbon electrodes as supports.

Expected Outcomes

Coupling with a metal electrode will delink electron transfers from a molecular catalyst’s oxidation states, fundamentally changing catalytic behaviour that currently restricts reactions to 2 electrons. Thus, CO2 reduction products such as methanol (6 electrons) and ethanol (12 electrons) will become viable.

Utilizing this counterintuitive approach, I will push alcohol synthesis well beyond state-of-the-art selectivity and reaction rates, giving renewed promise for producing these compounds.