The True Fate of Pyridinium in the Reportedly Pyridinium‐Catalyzed Carbon Dioxide Electroreduction on Platinum

Abstract

AbstractProtonated pyridine (PyH+) has been reported to act as a peculiar and promising catalyst for the direct electroreduction of CO2 to methanol and/or formate. Because of recent strong incentives to turn CO2 into valuable products, this claim triggered great interest, prompting many experiments and DFT simulations. However, when performing the electrolysis in near‐neutral pH electrolyte, the local pH around the platinum electrode can easily increase, leading to Py and HCO3− being the predominant species next to the Pt electrode instead of PyH+ and CO2. Using a carefully designed electrolysis setup which overcomes the local pH shift issue, we demonstrate that protonated pyridine undergoes a complete hydrogenation into piperidine upon mild reductive conditions (near 0 V vs. RHE). The reduction of the PyH+ ring occurs with and without the presence of CO2 in the electrolyte, and no sign of CO2 electroreduction products was observed, strongly questioning that PyH+ acts as a catalyst for CO2 electroreduction.