Research progress on electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide has been made by Shanghai Advanced Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences. The results have been published in the international journal "German Applied Chemistry".

By electrocatalytic carbon dioxide conversion, renewable wind power, solar power generation and other clean electricity as energy, under normal temperature and pressure conditions, carbon dioxide can be directly converted into carbon monoxide, formic acid and other fuels and chemicals in one step, and at the same time, carbon dioxide resource utilization and effective storage of clean electricity can be realized.

It is reported that after nearly two years of exploration by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it is found that the Pd-Sn alloy catalyst composed of metal Pd (Pd) and Sn (Sn) has very excellent performance. By applying a very low voltage, 99% of the power input (current efficiency) can be used to drive the conversion of carbon dioxide to formic acid.

Formic acid (which converts CO2 to CO)

And formic acid is one of the basic organic chemical raw materials, widely used in pesticides, leather, dyes, medicine and rubber industries.

Direct production of ethanol from carbon dioxide by electrocatalysis with nitrogen-containing mesoporous carbon

In addition, the team has developed a nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon (N-carbon) material for electrocatalytic carbon dioxide conversion. By adjusting the pore structure and surface active site configuration of N-Carbon, the direct conversion of carbon dioxide to ethanol was successfully realized.

Ethanol is one of the most widely used basic chemicals, used in the synthesis of acetic acid, beverages, flavors, dyes, fuels, etc.