Carbon dioxide reduction faradaic efficiency

Of great interest and importance are studies on carbon dioxide reduction on copper electrodes, performed primarily by Japanese scientists. Under certain conditions, formation of methane and ethylene with high faradaic yields (up to 90%) was observed. The efficiency and selectivity of this reaction depends very much on the purity and the state of the surface of the copper electrode. For this reason, many of the published results are contradictory. 

Methanol Reduction at Ruthenium. The reduction of methanol to methane does occur as shown by the data in Table III. The data for each electrode are presented in the order that they were collected. Rates can be higher for methanol reduction compared to carbon dioxide reduction though faradaic efficiencies are lower. Unlike carbon dioxide reduction, the rate of methane formation is extremely... 

Electrocatalysis at metal electrodes in aqueous (1.2) and non-aqueous ( ) solvents, phthalocyanine ( ) and ruthenium ( ) coated carbon, n-type semiconductors (6.7.8),and photocathodes (9,10) have been explored in an effort to develop effective catalysts for the synthesis of reduced products from carbon dioxide. The electrocatalytic and photocatalytic approaches have high faradaic efficiency of carbon dioxide reduction (1,6). but very low current densities. Hence the rate of product formation is low. Increasing current densities to provide meaningful amounts of product, substantially reduces carbon dioxide reduction in favor of hydrogen evolution. This reduction in current efficiency is a difficult problem to surmount in light of the probable electrostatic repulsion of carbon dioxide, or the aqueous bicarbonate ion, from a negatively charged cathode (11,12). 

A little later, Russell et al.19 tried to obtain methanol from carbon dioxide by electrolysis. Reduction of carbon dioxide to formate ion took place in a neutral electrolyte at a mercury electrode. On the other hand, formic acid was reduced to methanol either in a perchloric acid solution at a lead electrode or in a buffered formic acid solution at a tin electrode. The largest faradaic efficiency for methanol formation from formic acid was ca. 12%, with poor reproducibility, after passing 1900 C in the perchloric acid solution at Pb in a very narrow potential region (-0.9 to -1.0 V versus SCE). In the buffered formic acid solution (0.25 M HCOOH + 0.1 M... 

When the temperature is raised to 75 °C a decrease in the rate of carbon monoxide reduction is observed with a parallel decrease in the faradaic efficiency. When the electrode is used a second time for carbon monoxide reduction at 60 °C, after it was used for electrolysis at 75 °C, (last entry in Table I) it shows considerable deactivation. The reduction of carbon dioxide also shows a similar... 

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