Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide to Ethane Using Nanostructured Cu2O-Derived Copper Catalyst and Palladium(II) Chloride

By Chung Shou Chen and Jane Hui Wan and Boon Siang Yeo
Published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C NULL 2015

Abstract

A method to facilitate the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) to ethane (C2H6) was developed. The electrolyte used was aqueous 0.1 M KHCO3. Chronoamperometry, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, online gas chromatography, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy were used to characterize the electrochemical system and products formed. Carbon dioxide reduction using a Cu2O-derived copper working electrode gave ethylene (C2H4) and ethanol as main C2 products, with optimized faradic efficiencies (FE) of 32.1 and 16.4\% at ?1.0 V vs RHE. The active catalysts were ?500 nm-sized crystalline Cu0 particles, which were formed via the reduction of the Cu2O precursor during the initial phase of the CO2 reduction reaction. When palladium(II) chloride was added to the electrolyte, C2H6 formation could be achieved with a significant FE of 30.1\% at the said potential. The production of C2H4 was, on the other hand, suppressed to a FE of 3.4\%. The alternate use of Pd0, PdO, or Pd

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