Electrochemical CO۲ reduction as a green pathway for encountering the global warming

Electrochemical CO۲ reduction is seen as a promising way to transform CO۲ into valuableproducts and aid in alleviating the energy and environmental issues we are facing. ECR for themost part continues at kind response conditions beneath surrounding temperatures and weights,which enormously benefits the large-scale applications.ECR process consists of three major steps that take place between the cathode and electrolyte. inthe first step, CO۲ molecules are chemically adhered to the electro catalyst surface. next,electrons and/or protons shift to divide C-O bonds, creating correlated intermediates. lastly, theseintermediates reorganize into products and are released from the catalyst surface into theelectrolyte. at the same time, the anodic reaction transpires on the anode side in order to balancethe current of the electrolyzer. The cathode and anode are typically kept apart by an ionexchangemembrane [۱].CO۲ is always considered a gas, water a liquid, and the state of the product is gas or aqueous asindicated. Regardless of which CO۲R product is formed at the cathode, the fact that the CO۲Rreaction together with OER (Reaction ۱) must add to an overall reaction of the form of Reaction۳ means that the stoichiometric coefficients for electrons and protons in a sustained CO۲reduction reaction must be equal. Acidic products are therefore considered in the fully protonatedform [۲].۲𝐻۲𝑂 → 𝑂۲ + ۴𝐻+ + ۴𝑒− (۱)𝑥𝐶𝑂۲ + 𝑦𝐻۲𝑂 → 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡 + 𝑧𝑂۲ (۲)CO is an important intermediate in CO۲R to hydrocarbons, aldehydes, and alcohols on Cu, and apromising approach to CO۲R is a stepwise one via CO, in which CO reduction (COR) is animportant reaction in its own right [۳].In electrochemical CO۲ reduction, the cathodic reaction is of the general form𝑥𝐶(....)Although the equilibrium potentials for CO۲ reduction to hydrocarbons, aldehydes, and alcoholsare slightly positive of the RHE, producing these compounds through direct electrochemicalmeans still requires a significant amount of energy input. This is because the minimum potentialrequired to drive the overall reaction is greater than ۱ V. Additionally, both the OER and CO۲R necessitate large overpotentials, which means that a CO۲R device will run at a higher cellpotential than the thermodynamic potential. Nevertheless, the thermodynamic cell potential setsthe minimum energy requirement for a given product, and thus, by considering the cost ofenergy, one can estimate the economic viability of a product [۴, ۵].