Electroreduction of Carbon Dioxide to Sustainable Fuels

利用间歇性可再生能源（如风能和太阳能）产生的多余电能，可以通过电化学方法减少二氧化碳，以生产能源密集型产品。这些产品包括乙醇、乙烯和甲烷，在许多其他科学过程中也很有用。先前的工作已经证明，铜基催化剂在水性环境中对有用的产物是最有效和最有选择性的。本项目是一个混合设计和合成的铜基催化剂用于电还原二氧化碳。电化学测量将用于计算催化剂的效率，分析技术如GC和NMR将用于检测产物。这些催化剂还将在专门的电化学装置中进行测试，该装置利用低催化剂负载和加速传质的条件。

Using excess electrical energy produced by intermittent renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, carbon dioxide can be reduced electrochemically to produce energy dense products. These products include ethanol, ethylene and methane and are useful in many other scientific processes. Previous work has demonstrated copper-based catalysts are most efficient and selective towards useful products in an aqueous environment. This project is a mixture of design and synthesis of a copper-based catalyst for electroreduction of carbon dioxide. Electrochemical measurements will be used to calculate the efficiency of the catalyst and analytical techniques such as GC and NMR will be used to detect the products. The catalysts will also be tested in a specialised electrochemical set up which utilises a low catalyst loading and conditions of accelerated mass transport.