Suppressing Competing Solvent Reduction in CO2 Electroreduction with a Magnetic Field.

Abstract

The presence of an external magnetic field is found to affect the competition between the H2O and CO2 reduction reactions by increasing mass transport via the Lorentz force. Increasing the magnetic field strength at the electrode surface from 0 to 325 mT increases the selectivity of CO over H2 by 3×, while an increase in current density from 0.5 to 5 mA/cm2 increases the selectivity of CO production by 5×. Cyclic voltammetry and finite-element simulations reveal that the origin of the enhanced CO selectivity is attributable to a magnetic field lowering the electrode-electrolyte interfacial pH. A drop in interfacial pH enables increased production of CO from CO2 reduction due to a decrease in the activity of H2O reduction and increase in CO2 solubility near the electrode surface. The insight provided in this study offers new opportunities to control reaction selectivity in electrocatalysis with magnetic field vectors.