Efficient reduction of carbon dioxide to liquid products is a highly desirable process for converting an industrial waste gas into fuels or commodity chemicals. Indium metal has shown ability to reduce CO2 to formate, with good efficiency. However, in this work, nanoparticulate (5-10 nm) indium exhibits increased faradaic yields at a range of potentials and pH values.  The importance of the surface oxidation state has also been studied using different indium-based nanoparticles to gain insight into the mechanism of reduction. While indium metal and indium oxide nanoparticles exhibit highly efficient CO2 reduction, indium hydroxide nanoparticles are not electroactive under argon but have high activity under CO2. We believe that the active surface is an indium hydroxide, which reacts with the carbon dioxide and forms a stabilized carbonate in situ and gets reduced by two electrons and a proton to formate (Figure 1).

Electroreduction of carbon dioxide on indium-based nanoparticles

248th National Meeting (2014)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.