CO2 Reduction in Acidic Medium Using Bimetallic Cu-Cd Catalysts
2024 AIChE Annual Meeting
CO2 Reduction in Acidic Medium Using Bimetallic Cu-Cd Catalysts
Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction (CO2R) offers a promising approach for recycling CO2 into high-value multi-carbon products. The CO2R performed in basic/neutral conditions is known to result in a carbon efficiency decrease through the formation of (bi)carbonate species. Performing CO2R in acidic conditions can overcome this challenge, but most copper catalysts exhibit low single product selectivity, and CO2R must compete with the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in acidic media. Reducing HER in acidic conditions and improving the catalyst selectivity towards multi-carbon products are crucial for the practical deployment of CO2R.
To address these challenges, the experimental results of CO2R using several bimetallic catalysts are presented. The catalysts were synthesized using electrodeposition methods in situ. Notably, a copper-cadmium catalyst was found to suppress hydrogen evolution while increasing selectivity towards ethanol. Additionally, copper-tin and copper-zinc catalysts were screened, and the difference in catalyst selectivity underscores the influence of catalyst compositions (i.e., different metallic species) on the performance of copper catalysts. Continued research into optimizing bimetallic catalysts through manipulating surface morphology and deposition methods could yield higher selectivities, resulting in an effective catalyst for chemically recycling CO2.
