A Mechanistic Study of CO<sub>2</sub> Reduction at the Interface of a Gallium Phosphide (GaP) Surface using Core-level Spectroscopy - Oral Presentation

Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission into the atmosphere has increased tremendously through burning of fossil fuels, forestry, etc.. The increased concentration has made CO2 reductions very attractive though the reaction is considered uphill. Utilizing the sun as a potential energy source, CO2 has the possibility to undergo six electron and four proton transfers to produce methanol, a useable resource. This reaction has been shown to occur selectively in an aqueous pyridinium solution with a gallium phosphide (GaP) electrode. Though this reaction has a high faradaic efficiency, it was unclear as to what role the GaP surface played during the reaction. In this work, we aim to address the fundamental role of GaP during the catalytic conversion, by investigating the interaction between a clean GaP surface with the reactants, products, and intermediates of this reaction using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We have determined a procedure to prepare atomically clean GaP and our initial CO2 adsorption studies have shown that there is evidence of chemisorption and reaction to form carbonate on the clean surface at LN2 temperatures (80K), in contrast to previous theoretical calculations. These findings will enable future studies on CO2 catalysis.