(66f) Measurement of Intrinsic Activity of Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO2 over Cu

Electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ offers a sustainable route to mitigate global warming and store intermittent solar and wind energy. Various electrocatalysts have been studied over the past three decades for the conversion of CO₂ to oxygenates such as CO, HCOOH, C₂H₂O₄, CH₃OH, and C₂H₅OH; and hydrocarbons such as CH₄, C₂H₄, and C₂H₆. Among these electrocatalysts, Cu is the only catalyst that can produce hydrocarbons. Several electrochemical cells have been proposed in the literature to measure activity and selectivity of the CO₂ reduction reaction. However, all of these measurements were affected by the poor mass transfer of CO₂ to the cathode at potentials more negative than -1 V vs RHE. The limiting factor in the electrochemical reduction of CO₂ is the depletion of dissolved CO₂ coupled with the increase in pH near the cathode. Here we propose a compact design of an electrochemical cell with the cathode being a Rotating Disk Electrode (RDE). The RDE sparged with gaseous CO₂ minimizes the cathode polarization and hence enable the measurement of intrinsic activity. The effect pH and applied potential on the intrinsic activity and selectivity of electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction reaction over Cu will be presented in this talk.