Less than a year after the kick-off, A-LEAF has published its first paper in a highly recognized peer reviewed scientific journal. Led by Prof. Javier Pérez Ramírez from ETH Zürich, researchers analysed the literature of the electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction, and elaborated a series of ‘maps’ that will facilitate the design of new catalysts and devices.

Despite the latest advances, the electrochemical reduction of CO₂ needs to be more selective, and at the same time should inhibit hydrogen evolution, a competitive reaction. Pérez-Ramírez and his team analysed and classified a wide variety of materials and strategies used to perform this transformation since the 1980s.

This detailed structuring of data coming from a huge collection of papers was plotted in intuitive colour maps that offer a new perspective for the development of new, more efficient materials for CO₂ reduction. The different maps explore factors like the most commonly reported products, the faradaic efficiency of the processes, the different type of catalytic materials and the way of processing them.

Hopefully, this comprehensive review –together with new computational calculations and the clever use operando techniques– will pave the way for a more efficient and selective CO₂ reduction reaction.

The article is open access and can be read for free here. It is also available for download in our ‘Outcomes’ section.

Reference

G. O. Larrazábal et al. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2017, 8, 3933-3944 (DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b01380).