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Towards molecular understanding of local chemical environment effects in electro- and photocatalytic CO2 reduction

Nature Catalysis volume 3, pages 775–786 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Substantial progress has recently been made in the general understanding of the interfacial CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) in electro- and photocatalysis, but the influence of the local chemical environment and its effects on the catalytic interface at the molecular level remains largely elusive. Here, we introduce a classification scheme to group different aspects influencing the interfacial CO2RR thermodynamics and kinetics. This categorization allows a systematic survey of the literature focusing on the local chemical environment encompassing surface effects (adsorbates, support), solution interactions (electrolyte constituents) and three-dimensional chemical surroundings (polymers, metal organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs)). The review concludes with an outlook discussing possible future concepts for next-generation electrocatalytic and photocatalytic CO2RR.

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Fig. 1: Classification of the local chemical environment effects in CO2RR.
Fig. 2: Surface-modifiers grouped into different classes used to modulate the local chemical environment around the catalytic site.
Fig. 3: Local chemical environment effects in solution.
Fig. 4: Local chemical environment effects in CO2RR using 3D-catalyst architectures.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge financial support by the Christian Doppler Research Association, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs, the National Foundation for Research, Technology and Development and the OMV Group. We would like to thank Dr. Souvik Roy and Dr. Tengfei Li for feedback and careful proofreading of the manuscript.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: A. Wagner and C. D. Sahm.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, UK

    Andreas Wagner, Constantin D. Sahm & Erwin Reisner

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A.W. and C.S. researched literature and drafted the outline and the manuscript, E.R. contributed references and discussions, reviewed and revised the outline and the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Erwin Reisner.

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Wagner, A., Sahm, C.D. & Reisner, E. Towards molecular understanding of local chemical environment effects in electro- and photocatalytic CO2 reduction. Nat Catal 3, 775–786 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-020-00512-x

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