Research Projects

The challenge of ECO2R is to find economically cheap electrocatalysts with high catalytic activity, selectivity, and durability. The electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 occurs at a triple-phase interface, which depends on the properties of the triple-phase interface and the individual properties of the three distinct phases. The use of gas diffusion electrodes (GDE) significantly enhances the throughput of electrocatalytic CO2 reduction due to increased mass transport and the possibility to significantly increase active site density. The main aim of this proposal is to synthesize cost-effective 2D materials as transition metal carbides (MXenes) and derived materials with accessible high specific surface area and density of active sites, tunable functional groups, unsaturated dense metallic active sites, three-dimensional network, and interconnected conductive network for efficient and selective ECO2R to C2 products. The proposed materials will be fabricated using successive mechanochemical and exfoliation methods, producing electrocatalytic materials with a high density of accessible specific surface-active functional groups and unsaturated dense metallic active sites. The three-dimensional Mxene networks will be enhanced by using the ECO2RR active nitrogen-rich phthalocyanine ligand H4PC-COOH to introduce functional nitrogen moieties. The resultant MXene hybrid materials will be used to prepare Gas diffusion electrodes (GDE) by spray-coating a suspension of the catalyst materials onto teflonized carbon fiber papers followed by compression. In-depth electrochemical characterization and iterative structure-performance optimization for selective C2+ products will be conducted.