From greenhouse gas to valuable basic chemicals

The conversion of carbon dioxide into hydrocarbons and other basic chemicals plays an important role on the road to a sustainable economy. One promising process is the electrochemical conversion of gas isolated from the air or from industrial waste and secondary streams to copper catalysts. Solar or wind power can be used as the energy source. This also offers the possibility of storing excess renewable energy in the form of chemical energy.

However, the electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide is a complex process, and the individual steps have not yet been clarified. “A deeper insight into the reaction mechanisms is essential in order to steer the implementation of carbon dioxide towards the desired target products,” emphasises Professor Bastian J. M. Etzold of the Department of Chemistry at TU Darmstadt.

Together with the group of Professor Jan P. Hoffmann (Department of Materials and Earth Sciences at TU Darmstadt) and researchers at the Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy, Etzold and his colleagues have now decoded essential steps in electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion. And they did so with a trick, as they now report in the renowned journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition: the scientists applied an ionic liquid to the copper catalyst that acted as a chemical trap. This allows intermediates of the electrochemical conversion to be intercepted and certain reaction steps to be prevented or slowed down.