2019 AIChE Annual Meeting

(560bh) Doped Transition Metal Nitrides As Efficient Electrocatalysts for Electrochemical Reduction of CO2

Authors

Karamad, M. - Presenter, University of Calgary
Siahrostami, S., University of Calgary
Gates, I. D., University of Calgary
Doped transition metal nitrides as efficient electrocatalysts for electrochemical reduction of CO2

Mohammadreza Karamad, Samira Siahrostami and Ian Gates

Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada.

Electrochemical reduction of CO2 to hydrocarbons and alcohols using intermittent renewable energy sources is a promising approach to store energy into chemical bonds for automotive and industrial applications.1 Among many known catalysts, very few, such as copper, are capable of reducing CO2 to significant amount of hydrocarbons and oxygenates, albeit at high overpotentials.2

In the past, numerous experimental and theoretical efforts have been dedicated to understand CO2 reduction reaction mechanism as well as identify efficient catalysts.3–6Transition metal nitrides have attracted a lot of attention for electrochemical reactions such as oxygen reduction reaction, ammonia synthesis and hydrogen evolution in recent years.7–9 In the present study, we employ Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations to study a wide range of transition metal nitrides with and without heteroatom dopants for CO2 reduction reaction. We identify several stable and active catalysts. This study suggests that transition metal nitrides are promising catalysts for electrochemical reduction of CO2.

References:

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  8. Abghoui, Y. et al. Enabling electrochemical reduction of nitrogen to ammonia at ambient conditions through rational catalyst design. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 17, 4909–4918 (2015).
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