Electrocatalyst Design for the Reduction of Carbon Dioxide
A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials for Energy Applications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 July 2024 | Viewed by 128
Special Issue Editor
Interests: nanomaterials; CO2 utilization; catalysis; electrocatalysis; zinc-air batteries; lithium/sodium-sulfur batteries; electrochemistry
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
With rapid population growth and technological progress, fossil energy is exploited and consumed at a high speed, resulting in an increasing in the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in the atmosphere, causing a global greenhouse effect and ocean acidification and other environmental problems. The “Artificial Carbon Cycle” is an ideal way to solve environmental and energy problems. Among them, an electrocatalytic CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR), which can efficiently and cleanly obtain various hydrocarbons, is considered to be a potential solution. CO2 is a stable, chemically inert linear molecule that requires extremely high energy to break the C=O bond, and the high kinetic barriers of the C−C coupling reaction and the competing reactions with H−H and C−H bond formation have largely hindered the generation of high value-added hydrocarbon fuels. Therefore, a fundamental understanding, rational design, and delicate manipulating of catalysts are the keys to achieve high-performance electrochemical CO2 conversion. Catalysts with special spatial arrangement can exhibit high catalytic activity, and the advantageous morphology, suitable support, electronic structure, and chemical properties can further improve the performance of CO2RR. However, there are still many questions that need to be explored to reach general conclusions, such as the effects of charge dynamics, molecular reaction processes in electrocatalysis, and other factors. Can we precisely tune product selectivity by material structure, type of elements, voltage range, or electrolyte compositions? Ongoing research is still addressing these fundamental questions, but industrial-level devices and systems are not out of reach. These are currently open questions, as well as hot and timely topics. Scientists around the world are invited to contribute to this Special Issue of Crystals to significantly facilitate the development of the CO2 electrolysis field. This Special Issue, titled “Electrocatalyst Design for the Reduction of Carbon Dioxide”, may become composed of status reports summarizing the progress achieved in the last five years.
Prof. Dr. Zhen Zhang
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- CO2 reduction
- electrocatalysts
- nanomaterials
- carbon conversion and utilization
- electrochemistry
- energy conversion
- electrolyzer
