Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide on an Indium Wire in a KOH/Methanol-Based Electrolyte at Ambient Temperature and Pressure

Abstract

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 in a KOH/methanol-based electrolyte was investigated with an indium (In) wire electrode at ambient temperature and pressure. Formic acid, carbon monoxide, and methane were the main products from the C()2. The formation of formic acid from the CO2 predominated in all the potential ranges studied. Under the optimum experimental conditions, 76.0% Faradaic efficiency formic acid, 41.4% CO, and 0.2% methane were produced from C02 by the electrochemical reduction. Hydrogen evolution, in competition with CO2 reduction, was observed at only 0.2% Faradaic efficiency. The partial current density for C02 reduction was more than 429 times larger than that for hydrogen evolution. This research can contribute to the application in the conversion of C02-saturated methanol into useful products and the large-scale removal of C02 from the atmosphere.

Understanding trends in electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction rates

“…Assuming a standard hydrogen electrode work function of 4.4 eV, activation energies are extrapolated to a work function of 4.0 eV, which corresponds to 0 V versus RHE at pH 7. All activation energies are referenced to the aqueous protons in bulk solution using the computational hydrogen electrode 37 .…”

Continuous electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide into formate using a tin cathode: Comparison with lead cathode

“…As a consequence, the study of the electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to formate has attracted renewed and growing interest over the last years. Some studies have used fixed-bed reactors (Köleli et al, 2003;Köleli and Balun, 2004;Kwon and Lee, 2010) or divided H-type cells (Chen and Kanan, 2012;Kaneco et al, 1998Kaneco et al, , 1999Li et al, 2012). Nevertheless, several works in the literature have been focussed on parallel-plate or filter-press flow-by type cells (Agarwal et al, 2011;Akahori et al, 2004;Alvarez-Guerra et al, 2012;Innocent et al, 2009;Li and Oloman, 2005, 2007Machunda et al, 2010Machunda et al, , 2011Narayanan et al, 2011;Subramanian et al, 2007;, under different working conditions and cathodes of very different nature, such as indium-impregnated lead wire (Akahori et al, 2004), lead-plated stainless steel woven mesh (Subramanian et al, 2007), tinned-copper mesh Oloman, 2005, 2006), tin particles (shots and granules) (Li and Oloman, 2007), lead plates (Alvarez-Guerra et al, 2012;Innocent et al, 2009), or metal catalysts (such as indium (Narayanan et al, 2011), lead (Machunda et al, 2010) or tin (Agarwal et al, 2011;Machunda et al, 2011;) electrodeposited on different substrates.…”

Effect of surface structure of platinum single crystal electrodes on the electrochemical reduction of CO2 in methanol-water mixtures

“…CO2 is a small molecule that allows a detailed analysis of its reactivity, not possible with larger and more complex molecules. While CO2 reduction in non-aqueous solvents has been extensively studied using a variety of different polycrystalline electrode materials [27,[33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41], the number of studies with well-defined electrode surfaces is much scarcer [42][43][44]. For this reason, and considering the high solubility of CO2 in methanol [45], we address in this work, the study of the electroreduction of CO2 in methanol/water mixtures using platinum single crystal electrodes.…”