Mechanistic insight into electrocatalytic glyoxal reduction on copper and its relation to CO₂ reduction.

ABSTRACT: Copper electrodes produce several industrially relevant chemicals and fuels during the electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR). Knowledge about the reaction pathways can help tune the reaction selectivity toward higher-value products. To probe the uncertain role of the C₂ molecule glyoxal, we electrochemically reduced it on polycrystalline Cu and quantified its liquid-phase products, namely, ethanol, ethylene glycol, and acetaldehyde. The gas phase contained hydrogen and traces of ethylene. In contrast with previous hypothesis, a one-to-one comparison with CO₂RR on Cu indicates that glyoxal is neither a major intermediate in the pathway toward ethylene nor in the pathway toward ethanol. In addition, great possibilities for the selective, l

SUBMITTER: Reichert AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9516950 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature