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Electrocatalysts for Carbon Dioxide Reduction

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Encyclopedia of Applied Electrochemistry

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Introduction

The major scientific challenges identified with the chemical reduction of CO2 are the incredible thermodynamic stability of this molecule and the requirement to transfer multiple electrons and protons in the course of the chemical reaction. As a result, reaction pathways involving transfer of a single electron proceed through the formation of highly energetic intermediates, and these processes are thermodynamically highly unfavorable (e.g., reaction 2 below). This in turn significantly diminishes the efficiency of overall CO2 reduction and can manifest itself in, e.g., high overpotential for the electrochemical process. On the other hand, proton-coupled multielectron reactions (e.g., reactions 3–6) are considerably more favorable; however, in order to implement them catalysis has to be involved. In addition, the use of water as the reaction medium does not only allow facile proton delivery but also enables coupling of the CO2reduction half-reaction to the water oxidation...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemistry Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, 11973-5000, USA

    Dmitry E. Polyansky

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  1. Dmitry E. Polyansky
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Correspondence to Dmitry E. Polyansky .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Eppstein, Germany

    Gerhard Kreysa

  2. Yokohama National University, Fac. Engineering, Yokohama, Japan

    Ken-ichiro Ota

  3. Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Robert F. Savinell

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Polyansky, D.E. (2014). Electrocatalysts for Carbon Dioxide Reduction. In: Kreysa, G., Ota, Ki., Savinell, R.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Applied Electrochemistry. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6996-5_398

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