Study of carbon dioxide electrochemical reduction in flow cell system using copper modified boron-doped diamond

Abstract

High concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere may cause climate and environmental changes. Therefore, various research has been extensively performed to reduce CO2 by converting CO2 directly into hydrocarbons. In this research, CO2 electrochemical reduction was studied using boron-doped diamond (BDD) modified with copper nanoparticles to improve BDD electrodes’ catalytic properties. The deposition was performed by chronoamperometry technique at a potential of -0.6 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) and characterized using SEM, EDS, XPS, and cyclic voltammetry (CV). CO2 electrochemical reduction on BDD and Cu-BDD was carried out at -1.5 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) for 60 minutes. The products were analyzed using HPLC and GC. The product was mainly formic acid with a concentration of 11.33 mg/L and 33% faradaic efficiency on a Cu-BDD electrode.