Electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂R) is a key technology to combat global climate issues. By utilizing renewable energy, we can convert greenhouse gases into value-added commodity chemicals. While there has been a growing number of CO₂R research in recent years, there are still many unanswered fundamental questions and engineering challenges. On a fundamental level, we would like to rationally design affordable and stable materials to control the reaction pathway to selectively produce C₂ and C₃ products and understand the electrolyte ion effects at the electrochemical interface. On a practical system level, we need to reduce carbonate formation and mass transport limitations, lower the operating cell voltage, improve CO₂ utilization and energy efficiencies, and incorporate real world CO₂ streams containing SO_x/NO_x.

With this collection, we encourage scientists from different academic backgrounds to explore these remaining challenges in the CO₂ electrochemical reduction reaction and provide a forum for the CO₂ community to share their latest research results. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Heterogeneous or homogeneous catalytic materials
• Computational theory, including DFT and finite element modeling
• Electrochemical interfaces and the electrolyte effects
• In situ spectroscopic and electroanalytical methods for mechanistic investigations
• System engineering for electrolyzer configurations
• Technoeconomic analyses of practical CO₂ electrolyzer systems

We welcome all submission of original research articles, reviews and perspectives related to the theme of CO₂ electrocatalytic reduction.