Aqueous Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide into Methanol with Cobalt Phthalocyanine

作者：Etienne Boutin, Min Wang, John C. Lin, Matthieu Mesnage, Daniela Mendoza, Benedikt Lassalle‐Kaiser, Christopher Hahn, Thomas F. Jaramillo, Marc Robert · 发表于：Angewandte Chemie International Edition · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.1002/anie.201909257 · 被引用次数：277 · 研究领域：CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts、Ionic liquids properties and applications、Carbon dioxide utilization in catalysis

Abstract Conversion of CO 2 into valuable molecules is a field of intensive investigation with the aim of developing scalable technologies for making fuels using renewable energy sources. While electrochemical reduction into CO and formate are approaching industrial maturity, a current challenge is obtaining more reduced products like methanol. However, literature on the matter is scarce, and even more for the use of molecular catalysts. Here, we demonstrate that cobalt phthalocyanine, a well‐known catalyst for the electrochemical conversion of CO 2 to CO, can also catalyze the reaction from CO 2 or CO to methanol in aqueous electrolytes at ambient conditions of temperature and pressure. The studies identify formaldehyde as a key intermediate and an unexpected pH effect on selectivity. This paves the way for establishing a sequential process where CO 2 is first converted to CO which is subsequently used as a reactant to produce methanol. Under ideal conditions, the reaction shows a global Faradaic efficiency of 19.5 % and chemical selectivity of 7.5 %.