Publication date: 17th July 2025
Electrochemical CO2 reduction can be used to produce a range of carbon-based small molecules, providing potential sustainable alternatives to our current use of fossil-derived feedstock chemicals. One key challenge is the difficulty to control the product selectivity of the reaction. The catalyst material plays a central role in influencing selectivity, where past experimental and computational studies revealed that different metals are characterized by favoring different major products. The two most intensively studied metals are silver and copper, with silver considered the most promising for selective production of CO, and copper known to be the only metal capable of forming significant amounts of products “beyond CO”, including hydrocarbons, alcohols, and multi-carbon species.
Our studies indicate that these generalizations do not always hold true, and that the selectivity of both Ag and Cu can be greatly altered by changes to the electrolyte and the cathode microenvironment. I will present examples of how variations in electrolyte concentration, cation type, and cell configuration can lead to formation of unconventional products (e.g. CH4 on Ag, CO on Cu). Furthermore, I will provide insight on how these effects can be dynamic in nature, revealed by using in-situ analytical techniques.
Helmholtz Association Initiative and Networking Fund (Helmholtz Young Investigator Group VH-NH-1225). EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation program project FlowPhotoChem (grant agreement 862453). DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) project nr. 501805371.
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