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Electrochemical CO 2 Reduction Using Electrons Generated from Photoelectrocatalytic Phenol Oxidation
Author(s) -
Guo Chenyan,
He Peng,
Cui Rongrong,
Shen Qi,
Yang Nianjun,
Zhao Guohua
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
advanced energy materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.08
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1614-6840
pISSN - 1614-6832
DOI - 10.1002/aenm.201900364
Subject(s) - overpotential , materials science , cathode , electrochemistry , anode , oxygen evolution , nanowire , redox , catalysis , electron , chemical engineering , nanotechnology , electrode , chemistry , organic chemistry , metallurgy , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
Electrochemical CO 2 reduction (ECCO 2 R) requires electrons, for example, from oxygen evolution reaction (OER). However, such a multiple‐electron‐involved reaction is complicated and kinetically slow, leading to high overpotential. Herein, OER is replaced with photoelectrocatalytic phenol oxidation reaction (PECPOR) that provides electrons for ECCO 2 R. In an integrated cell, ECCO 2 R is conducted on the cathode of Cu nanowires and PECPOR is performed on the anode of SnO 2 and Sb coated TiO 2 nanotubes. Significant improvement of ECCO 2 R into CO and hydrocarbons is realized when PECPOR is conducted at a high current density. The use of this integrated system results in the reduction of the specific energy consumption by a factor of 51.33%, compared with the utilization of two half‐cells for individual ECCO 2 R and PECPOR. This study thus proposes a novel strategy to couple ECCO 2 R with PECPOR and eventually to tackle the problems of environmental pollution and energy crisis.