(655a) Capture and Reuse of Carbon Dioxide Using Electrochemical Reduction to Produce Carboxylic Acids

The rise of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from power plants, transportation, and a range of industrial processes have contributed to the alarming increase in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gasses. To avoid catastrophic clime change, it is essential not only to reduce CO₂ emission, but find new ways to capture and reuse the CO₂ to produce a circular economy. While there are numerous technologies for capturing and sequestering CO₂ emissions from industrial sources and direct air capture (DAC), there remains a need for new routes to recycle CO₂ into useful products. However, due to the high thermodynamic stability of CO₂, conventional chemical synthesis routes require high temperatures and pressures to drive the reaction, requiring high energy use and limiting economic viability. One method to reducing the energy requirements and facilitating the use of CO₂ is the use of electrochemical approaches to activate the CO₂ and provide an alternative low temperature and pressure reaction pathway. Carboxylic acids are an exciting for recycling CO₂, as they represent an important intermediates for a wide range of polymers, agrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals. However, the high thermodynamic stability of CO₂ and activation energy required for conventional thermochemical synthetic approaches are cost prohibitive.

Mainstream will present and discuss our electroorganic synthesis approach to producing carboxylic acids using simple, scalable reaction conditions and a range of model substrates. The synthesis is made possible using custom gas diffusion-based electrodes, which provide the optimum catalytic electrochemical reaction interface. They are designed to prevent liquid electrolyte loss while allowing the maximum CO₂ electrode. We discuss our cell and seal design, the effects of solvent and supporting electrolytes, and charge carriers to produce a scalable electroorganic synthesis approach to the capture and reuse of CO₂. This equipment can also leverage a paired synthesis, producing useful products at both the cathode and the anode.