Background
The accelerated increase of CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere due to anthropogenic activities is causing a host of economic and environmental issues such as coastal flooding, increased catastrophic weather events, shifting agricultural productivities, and decreased biodiversity. To combat rising global CO2 levels in a world with an economy heavily dependent upon fossil fuels, chemical carbon mitigation aims to capture atmospheric CO2 and convert it to value-added products. Electrochemical reduction of CO2 to synthetic fuels using renewable energy sources is a promising approach to store energy into chemical bonds for industrial applications and is a renewable and efficient method of reducing CO2 to various products based on multiple electron transfer mechanisms.
Description
Researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno have constructed novel polymer-modified electrodes that exhibit high electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to CH4 production at room temperature. Electrochemical reduction of CO2 offers a viable pathway to generating value-added products and synthetic fuels to meet our future energy demands while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.
Advantages
- Significantly enhanced CH4 production (88% Faradaic efficiency)
- Increased selectivity of CO2 reduction electrocatalysts
- Very little hydrogen production with aqueous electrolytes
Publications
1. Electrochemical CO2 reduction to methane with remarkably high Faradaic efficiency in the presence of a proton permeable membrane
