Cyclic voltammetric study on carbon dioxide reduction using Cu complexes as electrocatalysts

Abstract

From the aspect of the global greenhouse effect, CO, reduction has received great interest recently. The electrochemical reduction of CO, has been studied extensively so far and is classified into three categories: (1) direct reduction on metal cathodes [l-9], (2) indirect reduction using metal electrocatalysts [l,lO-221, and (3) co-reduction with organic substrates [1,23-311. Although copper is a unique cathode metal which gives hydrocarbons (mainly CH, and C,H,) in high selectivity in the above category (1) [3], copper electrocatalysts in category (2) have rarely been used. In fact, it has been reported only that a copper-phthalocyanine electrocatalyst has a low catalytic activity [32,33]. Therefore, in this work the CO, reduction was examined by means of cyclic voltammetry using other copper-complex catalysts.