Converting abundant and unreactive CO2 into more desirable carbon feedstocks is an important step toward sustainable chemistry. While CO2 can be reduced to CO and formate using a variety of transition metal electrodes, only Cu metal electrodes further reduce CO2 into methane and ethylene in significant yields. Further work in this area is needed in order to achieve more selective production of a single desired product. Several routes for incorporating Cu(I) active sites as heterogeneous electrocatalyts are being explored. Glassy carbon electrodes are modified with covalently attached N-donating ligands coordinated to a Cu(I) center. By controlling surface coverage on these electrodes, kinetic studies of CO?2 reduction products can be performed. Likewise, the electrocatalytic activity of Cu nanoparticles intercalated throughout mesoporous carbon is currently being explored. We employed a hard templated synthesis of cubic and hexagonally ordered mesoporous carbon as a support for Cu nanoparticle-based electrocatalysts and used them to study the electrochemical reduction of CO2. The very high internal surface area of the mesoporous carbon, compared to a bulk copper electrode, and the tunable pore size, facilitated the size-controlled deposition of Cu nanoparticles. X-ray spectroscopy was utilized to elucidate the nature of the surface chemistry and local structure of the Cu species.

Toward electrocatalytic CO<sub>2</sub> reduction using heterogeneous approaches to Cu-based catalysts

248th National Meeting (2014)

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Toward electrocatalytic CO2 reduction using heterogeneous approaches to Cu-based catalysts

Toward electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction using heterogeneous approaches to Cu-based catalysts