Nanoscale Advance of CO2 Electroreduction

Introduction

The transformation of CO2 into fuels and chemicals is one promising route to revert global warming, enabling sustainable circular economies. CO2 electroreduction (CO2E) offers a pathway to generate globally used chemicals using renewable electricity. The performance of CO2E towards key chemicals such as ethylene, ethanol (C2), and higher energy-density molecules with an increasing number of carbon atoms (e.g., C3 and beyond) is today far from its technoeconomic viability.

Challenges in CO2 Electroreduction

Product selectivity, energy efficiency, stability, and carbon utilization are, when combined at scale, insufficient. Further advances in CO2R performance are precluded by:

1. The yet limited understanding of reaction pathways, mass transport, and reactant competition.
2. The scarce knowledge of the catalyst and its environment during the reaction.
3. The lack of ability to control these factors accurately at the catalyst metal/liquid interface.

NASCENT's Approach

NASCENT tackles these challenges by exploring an innovative catalyst design materials platform to address the catalyst interface through atomic, nano, and micro-scales. NASCENT exploits a family of metal and polymer precursors and engineers their assembly into metal/polymer interfaces with specific configurations tailored for CO2E.

This approach is informed by a suite of complementary operando spectroscopies, designed and orchestrated to resolve the unanswered questions of CO2E interfaces at relevant operating conditions. These conditions involve:

• High current density
• Abrupt potentials
• A highly dynamic water/ion environment

Goals of NASCENT

This will enable the rational design of metal/polymer CO2E interfaces that achieve and exploit control over:

• Composition
• Reactants
• Ions
• Charges
• Electric fields

These controls will be applied across the needed spatial and temporal scales.

NASCENT will help answer key fundamental questions in CO2E, leading to transformative advances. Its ultimate goal is the viable, clean electrosynthesis of the most important C2 chemicals and a path to generate so far elusive C3+ molecules efficiently.