Finding innovative carbon management solutions is critical to ushering in a new era of sustainability. As a part of the many efforts in developing sustainable practices, electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide to value-added products has gained significant interest due to its great potentials for fundamentally changing the way energy and matter flow in our society. In particular, research focused on nanomaterials based catalysts has provided significant breakthroughs in the field. Here, I will discuss the various structural aspects of nanoparticles used in electrocatalysis and how that understanding has led to improvements in their CO2 reduction performance. The systematic approach to nanoparticle catalyst design requires the consideration of a wide range of length scales for their usage, from atomic all the way to macroscopic. First, we have explored the structural diversity of the gold-copper bimetallic nanoparticle system and probed the structural features down to atomic levels to evaluate their impact toward CO2 catalysis. Then, we have sought ways to translate the identified active site motifs to more applicable platforms used in (photo-)electrochemistry. More recently, we have investigated the catalytic role of structural dynamics in nanomaterials electrochemistry, where the dynamic structural transformation of nanoparticles has been found to promote their CO2 reduction activity. All the works discussed here will illustrate the large complexity of the structural variables involved in nanoparticle electrocatalysis and how the deepened understanding of that could benefit the catalytic transformations of CO2 to valuable products.

Nanoparticle electrocatalysts for chemical valorization of carbon dioxide

256th National Meeting (2018)

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