Ultrasound-boosted selectivity of CO in CO2 electrochemical reduction

Yang Yang; Yiqing Feng; Kejian Li; Saira Ajmal; Hanyun Cheng; Kedong Gong; Liwu Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.ultsonch.2021.105623

Ultrasound-boosted selectivity of CO in CO₂ electrochemical reduction

Ultrason Sonochem. 2021 Aug:76:105623. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2021.105623. Epub 2021 Jun 8.

Authors

Yang Yang¹, Yiqing Feng², Kejian Li², Saira Ajmal², Hanyun Cheng², Kedong Gong², Liwu Zhang³

Affiliations

¹ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, PR China; School of Life Science, Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei 235000, PR China.
² Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, PR China.
³ Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, PR China; Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai 200092, PR China. Electronic address: zhanglw@fudan.edu.cn.

Abstract

Among the possible products of CO₂ electrochemical reduction, CO plays a unique and vital role, which can be an ideal feedstock for further reduction to C₂₊ products, and also the important component of syngas that can be used as feedstock for value-added chemicals and fuels. However, it is still a challenge to tune the CO selectivity on Cu electrode. Here we newly construct an ultrasound-assisted electrochemical method for CO₂ reduction, which can tune the selectivity of CO₂ to CO from less than 10% to >80% at -1.18 V versus (vs.) reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE). The partial current density of CO production is significantly improved by 15 times. By in-situ Raman study, the dominating factor for the improved CO production is attributed to the accelerated desorption of *CO intermediate. This work provides a facile method to tune the product selectivity in CO₂ electrochemical reduction.

Keywords: CO; Cu electrode; Electrochemical CO(2) reduction; In-situ Raman; Ultrasonic.