The large-scale application of renewable energy driven electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) systems require efficient and cost-effective catalysts. One particular interest is to reduce CO2 to chemicals that can be transported, stored and utilized with existing infrastructure. Metal catalysts such as Pb, In and Sn are regarded as the benchmark catalysts for CO2 conversion to formate. Sn attracts considerable interest due to its high activity for formate production, low cost and non-toxic nature. Nevertheless, Sn catalyst also have limitation such as the requirement of high operating potentials to achieve high values of FEHCOO- and varying Faradaic efficiency towards formate production. Taking into accounts the past contributing factors and observations in fabricating Sn catalyst, this paper reports the design of effective Sn-based catalysts for CO2RR via a simple, inexpensive and scalable technique known as anodisation technique.

Read more in Cat. Sci. Tech, 2017 (just accepted) doi:10.1039/C7CY00246G

Low-cost Sn electrode fabricated by anodisation technique for enhancing the electrocatalytic reaction of CO2 to formate