Unravelling the Effect of Activators used in The Synthesis of Biomass-Derived Carbon Electrocatalysts on the Electrocatalytic Performance for CO₂ Reduction

N-doped carbon materials can be efficient and cost-effective catalysts for the electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR). Activators are often used in the synthesis process to increase the specific surface area and porosity of these carbon materials. However, owing to the diversity of activators and the differences...

Electrochemical CO₂ Reduction on Copper in Propylene Carbonate: Influence of Water Content and Temperature on the Product Distribution

Aqueous electrolytes are most commonly used for the CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR), but suffer from a low CO₂ solubility that limits the reaction. Electrochemical CO₂ reduction in nonaqueous electrolytes can provide a solution, due to the higher CO₂ solubility of organic solvent-based...

Monolithic fiber/foam-structured catalysts: beyond honeycombs and micro-channels

Heterogeneous catalysis plays a pivotal role in the current chemical and energy vectors production. Notably, to fully utilize the intrinsic activity and selectivity of a catalyst, the chemical reactor has to be designed and operated optimally to achieve enhanced heat/mass transfer, well-defined contact time of reactants, uniform flow pattern,...

Tuning the Properties of N-Doped Biochar for Selective CO₂ Electroreduction to CO

Nitrogen-doped (N-doped) carbon catalysts have been widely studied for electrochemical CO₂ reduction to CO. However, the correlation between the physicochemical properties of N-doped carbon catalysts and their electrocatalytic performance for the CO₂RR is still unclear. Herein, a series of N-doped biochar catalysts with...

Electrochemical Conversion of NO to NH₃ in a PEM Cell

The continuous electrochemical NO reduction to ammonia in a PEM cell was investigated in this work. We used a ruthenium-based catalyst at the cathode and an iridium oxide catalyst at the anode. The highest ammonia faradaic efficiency was observed at 1.9 V cell voltage. Adjusting the NO flow allowed to achieve 97% NO conversion and 93% ammonia...

Revisiting the Electrochemical Nitrogen Reduction on Molybdenum and Iron Carbides: Promising Catalysts or False Positives?

The electrochemical dinitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) has recently gained much interest as it can potentially produce ammonia from renewable intermittent electricity and replace the Haber-Bosch process. Previous literature studies report Fe- and Mo-carbides as promising electrocatalysts for the NRR with activities higher than other metals....

Benchmarking the Electrochemical CO₂ Reduction on Polycrystalline Copper Foils: The Importance of Microstructure Versus Applied Potential

Copper is one of the most promising catalysts for the CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR) due to its unique capability of producing multicarbon products in appreciable quantities. Most of the CO₂RR research efforts have been directed towards the development of new electrocatalysts to either increase product...

Assessing Silver Palladium Alloys for Electrochemical CO₂ Reduction in Membrane Electrode Assemblies

The field of electrochemical CO₂ reduction has been transitioning to industrially relevant scales by changing the architecture of the electrochemical cells and moving away from the traditional aqueous H-cells to membrane electrode assemblies (MEA). The reaction environments in MEAs vary drastically from that of aqueous H-cells,...

Catalytic Cooperation between a Copper Oxide Electrocatalyst and a Microbial Community for Microbial Electrosynthesis

Electrocatalytic metals and microorganisms can be combined for CO2 conversion in microbial electrosynthesis (MES). However, a systematic investigation on the nature of interactions between metals and MES is still lacking. To investigate this nature, we integrated a copper electrocatalyst, converting CO2 to formate, with microorganisms,...

Electrolyte effects on the electrochemical reduction of CO₂

The electrochemical reduction of CO₂ to fuels or commodity chemicals is a reaction of high interest for closing the anthropogenic carbon cycle. The role of the electrolyte is of particular interest, as the interplay between the electrocatalytic surface and the electrolyte plays an important role in determining the outcome of the CO...

Lateral adsorbate interactions inhibit HCOO⁻ while promoting CO selectivity for CO₂ electrocatalysis on silver

Ag is a promising catalyst for the production of carbon monoxide (CO) via the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂ER). Herein, we study the role of the formate (HCOO⁻) intermediate *OCHO, aiming to resolve the discrepancy between the theoretical understanding and experimental performance of Ag. We show that...

Cathodic Corrosion of a Bulk Wire to Nonaggregated Functional Nanocrystals and Nanoalloys

A key enabling step in leveraging the properties of nanoparticles (NPs) is to explore new, simple, controllable, and scalable nanotechnologies for their syntheses. Among "wet" methods, cathodic corrosion has been used to synthesize catalytic aggregates with some control over their size and preferential faceting. Here, we report on a...

Ceria Electrocatalysis Compared to Nickel Using Pattern Anodes

Ceria and nickel pattern anodes are prepared and tested in order to gain a fundamental insight into the electrochemical oxidation of hydrogen on either of these surfaces. It is found that ceria is highly active towards electrochemical oxidation of hydrogen with lower polarisation resistance because of the mixed ionic electronic conductivity of...

Redox biochemistry of Pyrococcus furiosus: Fundamental and applied aspects

In Pyrococcus furiosus (Pfu) ferredoxin (Fd) replaces NAD+ for carrying reducing equivalent to the oxidative phosphorylation machinery, and it also takes part in the regeneration of NADPH, which is necessary for biosynthetic pathways. Therefore, it plays a central role in various metabolic pathways of the organism. PfuFd is one of the most...