Fundamentals, On-Going Advances and Challenges of Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Reduction

Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction (ECR) is an attractive pathway to synthesize useful fuels and chemical feedstocks, especially when paired with renewable electricity as the energy source. In this overview, we examine the recently witnessed advances and on-going pursuits of ECR in terms of the key fundamental mechanisms, basic experimentation principles, electrocatalysts and the electrochemical setup for ECR, aiming at offering timely key insights into solving the unsettled bottleneck issues. The reaction pathways are discussed in relation to the generation of single-, double- and multi-carbon products by the ECR, as well as the underlying principles in catalyst design to form them both efficiently and selectively. For the rational design of electrocatalysis, we look into the critically important roles played by various in situ and operando experimental techniques and computational simulations, where the key priorities are to engineer the highly active and selective ECR catalysts for the specifically targeted products. Indeed, with the purposely designed high activity and selectivity, one would be able to “magically” transform a bottle of CO2-riched “coke drink” to a glass of “beer” with the desired alcohol product in a layman term, instead of a bottle of formic acid. Nonetheless, there are still considerable complications and challenges ahead. As a dynamically rapid-advancing research frontier for both energy and the environment, there are great opportunities and obstacles in the ECR scale up. Electrochemical CO2 reduction, where the “spirit” is brewing on electrocatalytic activity and selectivity. With the designed catalytic activity and selectivity, one would be able to magically transform a bottle of CO2-riched “coke” into a glass of “beer”.