Electrocatalytic Activation of CO2 in Room-Temperature Ionic Liquids

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Björn Braunschweig
• Subject Area: Physical Chemistry of Molecules, Liquids and Interfaces, Biophysical Chemistry
• Term: from 2017 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 362603735

CO2 catalysis in ionic liquids has been shown to yield low overpotentials and reduction reactions that can occur at potentials close to the theoretical thermodynamic potential. This makes ionic liquids highly interesting electrolytes for CO2 catalysis. However, in comparison to aqueous electrolytes, where extensive studies exist, we have just started to understand CO2 reduction reactions (CO2RR ) on catalyst surfaces in contact with ionic liquids. In the first funding period, we have established new in situ and in operando spectroscopies that can provide detailed molecular level information on CO2RR. So far, our work was focused mostly on Pt electrode surfaces which were the ideal choice to understand the molecular origin of the low overpotentials for CO2RR. In a second funding period, we want to go beyond the fundamentally useful but for real world applications irrelevant Pt catalysts to new and much more relevant Cu and Cu/Au surface alloys as well as their bulk intermetallics that have not been studied in ionic liquids in detail, but are expected to yield C1 like HCOOH and possibly also C2 products. Several work packages will concentrate on delivering molecular level information from in situ/in operando spectroscopy of CO2 reaction pathways for Cu electrodes, while we also plan to extract the products from CO2RR in a continuous process. This will be done in a separate working package that is run parallel to the other addressing more fundamental aspects of CO2RR in ionic liquids.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants