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A Precious-Metal-Free Hybrid Electrolyzer for Alcohol Oxidation Coupled to CO2 -to-Syngas Conversion.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Warnan, Julien 
Abdiaziz, Kaltum 
Wagner, Andreas 

Abstract

Electrolyzers combining CO2 reduction (CO2 R) with organic substrate oxidation can produce fuel and chemical feedstocks with a relatively low energy requirement when compared to systems that source electrons from water oxidation. Here, we report an anodic hybrid assembly based on a (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxyl (TEMPO) electrocatalyst modified with a silatrane-anchor (STEMPO), which is covalently immobilized on a mesoporous indium tin oxide (mesoITO) scaffold for efficient alcohol oxidation (AlcOx). This molecular anode was subsequently combined with a cathode consisting of a polymeric cobalt phthalocyanine on carbon nanotubes to construct a hybrid, precious-metal-free coupled AlcOx-CO2 R electrolyzer. After three-hour electrolysis, glycerol is selectively oxidized to glyceraldehyde with a turnover number (TON) of ≈1000 and Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 83 %. The cathode generated a stoichiometric amount of syngas with a CO:H2 ratio of 1.25±0.25 and an overall cobalt-based TON of 894 with a FE of 82 %. This prototype device inspires the design and implementation of nonconventional strategies for coupling CO2 R to less energy demanding, and value-added, oxidative chemistry.

Description

Keywords

alcohols, carbon dioxide, catalyst immobilization, electrocatalysis, energy conversion

Journal Title

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1433-7851
1521-3773

Volume Title

59

Publisher

Wiley

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L015978/1)
Christian Doppler Forschungsgesellschaft (unknown)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (701192)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (744317)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (745604)