Continuous Electrochemical Reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to Formate: Comparative Study of the Influence of the Electrode Configuration with Sn and Bi-Based Electrocatalysts
Climate change has become one of the most important challenges in the 21st century, and the electroreduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to value-added products has gained increasing importance in recent years. In this context, formic acid or formate are interesting products because they could be...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Molecules |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/19/4457 |
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| author | Guillermo Díaz-Sainz Manuel Alvarez-Guerra Angel Irabien |
| author_facet | Guillermo Díaz-Sainz Manuel Alvarez-Guerra Angel Irabien |
| author_sort | Guillermo Díaz-Sainz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Climate change has become one of the most important challenges in the 21st century, and the electroreduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to value-added products has gained increasing importance in recent years. In this context, formic acid or formate are interesting products because they could be used as raw materials in several industries as well as promising fuels in fuel cells. Despite the great number of studies published in the field of the electrocatalytic reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to formic acid/formate working with electrocatalysts of different nature and electrode configurations, few of them are focused on the comparison of different electrocatalyst materials and electrode configurations. Therefore, this work aims at presenting a rigorous and comprehensive comparative assessment of different experimental data previously published after many years of research in different working electrode configurations and electrocatalysts in a continuous mode with a single pass of the inputs through the reactor. Thus, the behavior of the CO<sub>2</sub> electroreduction to formate is compared operating with Sn and Bi-based materials under Gas Diffusion Electrodes (GDEs) and Catalyst Coated Membrane Electrodes (CCMEs) configurations. Considering the same electrocatalyst, the use of CCMEs improves the performance in terms of formate concentration and energy consumption. Nevertheless, higher formate rates can be achieved with GDEs because they allow operation at higher current densities of up to 300 mA·cm<sup>−2</sup>. Bi-based-GDEs outperformed Sn-GDEs in all the figures of merit considered. The comparison also highlights that in CCME configuration, the employ of Bi-based-electrodes enhanced the behavior of the process, increasing the formate concentration by 35% and the Faradaic efficiency by 11%. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T15:59:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f09912dcb1a84b869e24447f3830761a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1420-3049 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T15:59:18Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Molecules |
| spelling | doaj.art-f09912dcb1a84b869e24447f3830761a2023-11-20T15:25:04ZengMDPI AGMolecules1420-30492020-09-012519445710.3390/molecules25194457Continuous Electrochemical Reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to Formate: Comparative Study of the Influence of the Electrode Configuration with Sn and Bi-Based ElectrocatalystsGuillermo Díaz-Sainz0Manuel Alvarez-Guerra1Angel Irabien2Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, University of Cantabria, ETSIIT, Avda. Los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, SpainChemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, University of Cantabria, ETSIIT, Avda. Los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, SpainChemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, University of Cantabria, ETSIIT, Avda. Los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, SpainClimate change has become one of the most important challenges in the 21st century, and the electroreduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to value-added products has gained increasing importance in recent years. In this context, formic acid or formate are interesting products because they could be used as raw materials in several industries as well as promising fuels in fuel cells. Despite the great number of studies published in the field of the electrocatalytic reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to formic acid/formate working with electrocatalysts of different nature and electrode configurations, few of them are focused on the comparison of different electrocatalyst materials and electrode configurations. Therefore, this work aims at presenting a rigorous and comprehensive comparative assessment of different experimental data previously published after many years of research in different working electrode configurations and electrocatalysts in a continuous mode with a single pass of the inputs through the reactor. Thus, the behavior of the CO<sub>2</sub> electroreduction to formate is compared operating with Sn and Bi-based materials under Gas Diffusion Electrodes (GDEs) and Catalyst Coated Membrane Electrodes (CCMEs) configurations. Considering the same electrocatalyst, the use of CCMEs improves the performance in terms of formate concentration and energy consumption. Nevertheless, higher formate rates can be achieved with GDEs because they allow operation at higher current densities of up to 300 mA·cm<sup>−2</sup>. Bi-based-GDEs outperformed Sn-GDEs in all the figures of merit considered. The comparison also highlights that in CCME configuration, the employ of Bi-based-electrodes enhanced the behavior of the process, increasing the formate concentration by 35% and the Faradaic efficiency by 11%.https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/19/4457CO<sub>2</sub> valorizationelectroreductionformateSn-based materialsbi-based materialsgas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) |
| spellingShingle | Guillermo Díaz-Sainz Manuel Alvarez-Guerra Angel Irabien Continuous Electrochemical Reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to Formate: Comparative Study of the Influence of the Electrode Configuration with Sn and Bi-Based Electrocatalysts Molecules CO<sub>2</sub> valorization electroreduction formate Sn-based materials bi-based materials gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) |
| title | Continuous Electrochemical Reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to Formate: Comparative Study of the Influence of the Electrode Configuration with Sn and Bi-Based Electrocatalysts |
| title_full | Continuous Electrochemical Reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to Formate: Comparative Study of the Influence of the Electrode Configuration with Sn and Bi-Based Electrocatalysts |
| title_fullStr | Continuous Electrochemical Reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to Formate: Comparative Study of the Influence of the Electrode Configuration with Sn and Bi-Based Electrocatalysts |
| title_full_unstemmed | Continuous Electrochemical Reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to Formate: Comparative Study of the Influence of the Electrode Configuration with Sn and Bi-Based Electrocatalysts |
| title_short | Continuous Electrochemical Reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> to Formate: Comparative Study of the Influence of the Electrode Configuration with Sn and Bi-Based Electrocatalysts |
| title_sort | continuous electrochemical reduction of co sub 2 sub to formate comparative study of the influence of the electrode configuration with sn and bi based electrocatalysts |
| topic | CO<sub>2</sub> valorization electroreduction formate Sn-based materials bi-based materials gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/25/19/4457 |
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