Dr. F. Pelayo Garcia de Arquer
ICFO Barcelona

The electroreduction of CO₂ to chemicals has the potential to enable a transition from fossil to renewable sources in the vast chemical industry - for example to produce clean fuels and materials for manufacturing. The technoeconomic viability of the CO₂ reduction (CO₂R) technology depends on achieving sufficient product selectivity, productivity (or current density), energy efficiency, and stability. I will present recent advances that, based on the manipulation of catalyst environment, achieve CO₂R to key multicarbon chemicals such as ethylene, ethanol, and propanol at high selectivity and productivity. With these increasing performance metrics, a crucial limiting factor in the CO₂R technology is CO₂ reactant loss - a result of rapid carbonate formation in alkaline and neutral electrolytes - which brings additional energy penalties. To conclude, I will provide an overview of some emerging strategies to address this challenge.

Invited by Prof. Emiliano Cortés