Electrocatalytic Reduction of Carbon Dioxide on Sn-Pb Alloy Electrodes

Electrocatalytic reduction can produce useful chemicals and fuels such as carbon monoxide, methane, formate, aldehydes, and alcohols using carbon dioxide, the green house gas, as a reactant through the supply of electrical energy. In this study, tin-lead (Sn-Pb) alloy electrodes are fabricated by electrodeposition on a carbon paper with different alloy composition and used as cathode for electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide into formate in an aqueous system. The prepared electrodes are measured by Faradaic efficiency and partial current density for formate production. Electrocatalytic reduction experiments are carried out at -1.8 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) using H-type cell under ambient temperature and pressure and the gas and liquid products are analyzed by gas chromatograph and liquid chromatograph, respectively. As results, the Sn-Pb electrodes show higher Faradaic efficiency and partial current density than the single metal electrode. The Sn-Pb alloy electrode which have Sn:Pb molar ratio=2:1, shows the highest Faradaic efficiency of 88.7%.