Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide : Product Analysis and Cell Design

Trivedi, Dhruv and Toghill, Kathryn (2022) Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide : Product Analysis and Cell Design. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

It is now well known that CO2 is one of the most significant greenhouse gasses causing global warming and detrimental climate changes. One of the 21st century's leading challenges is trying to reduce CO2 emissions by finding methods to reduce, reuse, and recycle the gas. Making use of the otherwise waste product by conversion to valuable compounds may eventually create a circular process, allowing CO2 emitting processes to run on their effluent gasses. Electrochemical conversion of CO2 is a popular method to convert CO2 to valuable products such as alcohols but is still to this day a very inefficient process. This thesis works towards and details challenges faced in enabling research at the Department of Chemistry, Lancaster University, towards electrochemical reduction of CO2. Developments are made by setting up product analysis arrays for liquid products (Ion chromatography, NMR) and gaseous products (Gas chromatography, on-line electrochemical mass spectrometry). Cell designs are also conceptualised and optimised for user-friendly, adaptable analysis using different types of electrodes (solid metal and gas diffusion electrodes) and for combined analysis using on-line electrochemical mass spectrometry and on-line gas chromatography. Therefore, a foundation for future experimentation using exciting, new, efficient catalysts is achieved in this work.