Bifunctional wood for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to formate and electroanalytical detection of myricetin and cadmium (II)

Abstract

In this work, we first discover the new bifunctional abilities of wood for highly selective electrocatalytic CO2 reduction to formate and highly sensitive electroanalytical detection of myricetin and cadmium (II). The highly developed microchannels in wood ensure most effective reactant and electrolyte transport, great facilitating the electrode reaction. The activated wood electrode displays excellent electrocatalytic CO2 reduction activity, attained the highest formate Faradaic Efficiency (FE) of 70.8% at −1.8 V with high current density of 53.8 mA cm−2 in aqueous solution, and displayed at least 24 h CO2 electrolysis durability. Furthermore, the wood is also first utilized as new electrode matrix for electroanalytical detection of drug (myricetin is as an example) and heavy metal ion (cadmium (II) is as an example). Compared with traditional glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and its derived modified electrodes, the wood electrode exhibits a wide linear detection range (0.01–50 μmol dm−3) and a low detection limit (0.002 μmol dm−3, S/N = 3) for myricetin, and displays a wide linear detection range (0.1–20 μg l−1) and a low detection limit (0.05 μg L−1, S/N = 3) for cadmium (II). These remarkable bifunctional performances of low cost wood electrode show great potential for large-scale using in CO2 electroreduction and electroanalytical detection.