Cu nanoparticles deposited on CNT by supercritical fluid deposition for electrochemical reduction of CO2 in a gas phase GDE cell.

Climate change has turned into one of the most important concerns for scientist in the last years due to the huge increase of CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere in the last century. Electrocatalytic reduction seems to be a very promising technology to help to reduce industrial CO 2 emissions. The development of catalysts capable of activating the CO 2 molecule is the main challenge of this technology. In this work a copper supported on carbon nanotubes (Cu/CNT) catalyst has been synthesized using supercritical fluid deposition (SFD) and assembled into a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) type cell to carry out the electrochemical reduction of CO 2. The influence of current density, temperature and CO 2 flowrate has been analysed and results have been compared with those previously obtained with Pt/CNT and Pb/CNT catalysts synthesized by SFD. The CO 2 reduction rate and the products distribution attained with the three catalysts have been analysed. CO has been the main reaction product attained with the Cu/CNT catalyst developed in this work, followed by small amounts of formic acid and methane. This can be considered the main difference observed in relation with Pt or Pb based catalysts that promote the production of formic acid as main reaction product. CO 2 conversion rate increases with temperature and CO 2 flowrate and is much higher than that attained when using Pt or Pb based catalysts in the same experimental conditions (up to 27 times higher depending on the experimental conditions). • Supercritical fluid deposition obtains homogeneous Cu nanoparticles distribution. • CO has been the main product obtained from the CO 2 reduction with Cu/CNT catalyst. • CO 2 conversion rate increases with temperature and CO 2 flowrate. • CO 2 conversion rate is up to 27 times higher with Cu/CNT than with Pt/CNT or Pb/CNT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]