New Trends in Electrocatalysis for CO₂ Conversion

Dear Colleagues,

The ever-increasing emissions of carbon dioxide resulting from an unbalanced carbon cycle are primarily responsible for global warming. The imbalance between emitted and recycled CO₂ results from human activity. Specifically, the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas contributes to increasing the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, reaching 413 ppm by the end of 2021, around 50% higher than the pre-industrial revolution level. Since the complete replacement of fossil fuels (and the energy transition towards renewable energy sources with zero or negative CO₂ footprint) still seems far from taking place, it is of paramount importance to tackle carbon dioxide accumulation by developing new CO₂ utilization technologies.

The possibility to convert CO₂ into valuable and easy-to-store chemicals, ranging from carbon monoxide to methanol, ethanol, ethylene, and formic acid, has opened several ways to accomplish CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR) using photochemical, biochemical, thermochemical, and electrochemical routes. Electrochemical CO₂RR offers several advantages, such as the possibility of operation at ambient temperature and pressure, tunable reaction rates, scalability through electrolyzer modular connection, and electrolyte recyclability. Moreover, excess energy coming from renewable energy sources can be exploited to drive the carbon dioxide reduction process.

Nevertheless, electrochemical CO₂ conversion is still far from reaching a mature commercial level, mainly because of challenging product selectivity, competing reactions, and sluggish CO₂ activation. Thus, developing efficient, highly selective, and cost-effective electrocatalysts is a crucial aspect.

This Special Issue will focus on the newest trends in CO₂RR electrocatalyst development and application, covering both low-temperature and high-temperature systems. The design of heterogeneous catalysts, their ex situ or in situ characterization, and final testing will be of interest. The focus on insights of reaction mechanisms and different pathways will be relevant both from fundamental and applied perspectives. The final purpose is providing a collection of valuable manuscripts that will contribute to shed light on CO₂ electrocatalytic conversion.

Dr. Leonardo Duranti
Dr. Igor Luisetto
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• electrochemical CO₂ reduction
• electrocatalysis
• molecular catalyst
• electrochemistry
• solid oxide electrolyzer cell
• CO₂RR mechanisms
• electrolyte
• electrodes
• material design
• cell configuration