Project Overview

Political developments in the US, India and Australia suggest that coal-fired power plants are on the brink of a renaissance. Even so, the problem of carbon emissions will remain. In addition to the technologies being currently considered for CO₂ management at both coal-fired and natural gas-powered thermoelectric power plants, CO₂ conversion is an alternative approach to eliminating the harmful environmental effect of excessive CO₂ in contributing to global warming. Electrochemical CO₂ conversion (ECC) utilizes electricity to directly convert CO₂ into formate, alcohol, or hydrocarbon fuels.

An intense, world-wide effort is underway in industrial, government, and academic labs to develop efficient and selective earth-abundant ECC catalysts. ECC is distinct from the photocatalytic conversion of CO₂ into light hydrocarbons, which does not involve an external bias to drive the reaction. We propose to use light in addition to electrical bias (photoelectrochemical CO₂ conversion) to increase the electrical and photochemical efficiencies for CO₂ reduction. The ultimate goals are to develop highly efficient photoelectrochemical catalysts and a cell that converts CO₂ into liquid fuels and valuable products.